Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

The Emotional Glue of the Senses: Affective Certainty and Congruency in the Rubber Hand Illusion

Maria Laura Filippetti, Louise P. Kirsch, Laura Crucianelli, Aikaterini Fotopoulou
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/401422
Maria Laura Filippetti
1Centre for Brain Science, Department of Psychology, University of Essex, CO4 3SQ, Colchester, UK
2Research Department of Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology, University College London, WC1E 7HB, London UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Louise P. Kirsch
2Research Department of Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology, University College London, WC1E 7HB, London UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Laura Crucianelli
2Research Department of Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology, University College London, WC1E 7HB, London UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Aikaterini Fotopoulou
2Research Department of Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology, University College London, WC1E 7HB, London UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Our sense of body ownership relies on integrating different sensations according to their temporal and spatial congruency. Nevertheless, there is ongoing controversy about the role of affective congruency during multisensory integration, i.e. whether the stimuli to be perceived by the different sensory channels are congruent or incongruent in terms of their affective quality. In the present study, we applied a widely used multisensory integration paradigm, the Rubber Hand Illusion, to investigate the role of affective, top-down aspects of sensory congruency between visual and tactile modalities in the sense of body ownership. In Experiment 1 (N = 36), we touched participants with either soft or rough fabrics in their unseen hand, while they watched a rubber hand been touched synchronously with the same fabric or with a ‘hidden’ fabric of ‘uncertain roughness’. In Experiment 2 (N = 50), we used the same paradigm as in Experiment 1, but replaced the ‘uncertainty’ condition with an ‘incongruent’ one, in which participants saw the rubber hand being touched with a fabric of incongruent roughness and hence opposite valence. We found that certainty (Experiment 1) and congruency (Experiment 2) between the felt and vicariously perceived tactile affectivity led to higher subjective embodiment compared to uncertainty and incongruency, respectively, irrespective of any valence effect. Our results suggest that congruency in the affective top-down aspects of sensory stimulation is important to the multisensory integration process leading to embodiment, over and above temporal and spatial properties.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted August 28, 2018.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
The Emotional Glue of the Senses: Affective Certainty and Congruency in the Rubber Hand Illusion
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
The Emotional Glue of the Senses: Affective Certainty and Congruency in the Rubber Hand Illusion
Maria Laura Filippetti, Louise P. Kirsch, Laura Crucianelli, Aikaterini Fotopoulou
bioRxiv 401422; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/401422
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
The Emotional Glue of the Senses: Affective Certainty and Congruency in the Rubber Hand Illusion
Maria Laura Filippetti, Louise P. Kirsch, Laura Crucianelli, Aikaterini Fotopoulou
bioRxiv 401422; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/401422

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Neuroscience
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4105)
  • Biochemistry (8808)
  • Bioengineering (6509)
  • Bioinformatics (23446)
  • Biophysics (11784)
  • Cancer Biology (9199)
  • Cell Biology (13314)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7430)
  • Ecology (11403)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15143)
  • Genetics (10430)
  • Genomics (14036)
  • Immunology (9167)
  • Microbiology (22142)
  • Molecular Biology (8802)
  • Neuroscience (47539)
  • Paleontology (350)
  • Pathology (1427)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2489)
  • Physiology (3729)
  • Plant Biology (8076)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1437)
  • Synthetic Biology (2220)
  • Systems Biology (6036)
  • Zoology (1252)