Abstract
Body representation refers to perception and memory in brain about status of one′s body, such as position, posture, and appearance. In the present study, we examined the influence of an instructed goal on modification of body representation. Specifically, we asked participants to move their left hands back and forward, while their left hand was hidden from vision, and a virtual left hand was presented 33 cm vertically above the real hand. The virtual hand moved synchronously with the real hand. After moving their hands for serval minutes, participants would feel that the virtual hand seems like their own, and their perceived position of the real left hand would shift to the position of the virtual hand. According to the results, we found that when the participants moved their hands upon an instructed goal, the perceived position of their real hand shifted more to the virtual hand than that when they moved their hands without a goal and received feedback of goal attainment. The results showed that of body representation was modified more by the synchronous visual motion when there was an instructed goal for the motion.
