PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Thibault Porssut
AU  - Fumiaki Iwane
AU  - Ricardo Chavarriaga
AU  - Olaf Blanke
AU  - José del R. Millán
AU  - Ronan Boulic
AU  - Bruno Herbelin
TI  - EEG signature of breaks in embodiment in VR
AID  - 10.1101/2022.08.10.502929
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.08.10.502929
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/08/13/2022.08.10.502929.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/08/13/2022.08.10.502929.full
AB  - The brain mechanism of embodiment in a virtual body has grown a scientific interest recently, with a particular focus on providing optimal virtual reality (VR) experiences. Disruptions from an embodied state to a less- or non-embodied state, denominated Breaks in Embodiment (BiE), are however rarely studied despite their importance for designing interactions in VR. Here we use electroencephalography (EEG) to monitor the brain’s reaction to a BiE, and investigate how this reaction depends on previous embodiment conditions. The experimental protocol consisted of two sequential steps; an induction step where participants were either embodied or non-embodied in an avatar, and a monitoring step where, in some cases, participants saw the avatar’s hand move while their hand remained still. Our results show the occurrence of error-related potentials linked to observation of the BiE event in the monitoring step. Importantly, this EEG signature shows amplified potentials following the non-embodied condition, which is indicative of an accumulation of errors across steps. These results provide neurophysiological indications on how progressive disruptions impact the expectation of embodiment for a virtual body.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.