Body ownership illusions in humans and other animals

Abstract

A sense of body ownership is essential in controlling one's own body in external space, which in turn may give rise to a sense of self-awareness. Body ownership in humans is sometimes extended to certain external objects apart from our own bodies, and such plastic changes in body ownership are thought to be the basis of tool use. Specifically, in a rubber hand illusion task, visuotactile stimuli from synchronous brush strokes to both participants' and rubber hands lead to illusory body ownership of the rubber hand and a shift of perception of the tactile stimuli to the rubber hand as a result of multisensory integration. Recent studies suggest that this kind of body ownership illusion occurs not only in humans but also in animals, including monkeys and mice. In addition, other studies have shown that body ownership is linked to empathy. Studying the body ownership illusion in humans and other animals, including models of human psychiatric disorders, will elucidate neural mechanisms underlying the sense of body ownership, which will consequently contribute to addressing the philosophical issue of self-awareness.