Bodily Self-consciousness: Autoscopic Phenomena & Full-body Illusions
Abstract
The human brain must continuously integrate and prioritize incoming sensory information from multiple modalities to create a unified and cohesive representation of the body. The subjective experience of the self relies on the brain’s ability to assimilate incoming sensory information proprioceptive, vestibular, tactile, and visual sensory signals.
Multisensory disintegration can alter one’s perceptual experience in numerous ways depending on which modalities are affected. Conflicting sensory input alters perception and can cause the brain to misinterpret the body’s location, identity, visual perspective, and even agency.
Autoscopic phenomena are striking examples of how multisensory disintegration can alter one’s sense of bodily self-consciousness. Bodily self-consciousness (BSC) is typically studied by inducing bodily illusions that redirect normal multisensory integration signals. Bodily illusions and autoscopic phenomena patients provide valuable insight into the multisensory mechanisms that enable the experience of phenomenal selfhood from the comfort of one’s own body.
In the future, full-body illusions may be a potential treatment option for individuals with body image disorders or chronic pain.
Relevant Definitions
Bodily Self-consciousness
Bodily self-consciousness (BSC) can be described as the unification of the mental self and the bodily self. BSC relies on the non-conscious integration of multisensory signals which ultimately enable a singular experiential consciousness of a unitary self whereby the mental and bodily self are phenomenologically experienced as a singular entity (Blanke et al., 2015). BSC involves an inherently unitary experience resulting from the convergence of multimodal processing (Fairve et al., 2015).
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BSC is often examined in relation to four primary elements: self-identification, self-location, visuospatial perspective, and sense of agency. Research has shown that these elements depend on different integrations of various multisensory signals (Tsakiris et al., 2010; Serino et al., 2013; Blanke et al., 2015).
Autoscopic phenomena (AP) refer to a group of illusory own-body perceptions during which one perceives an illusory reduplication of one’s own body in extrapersonal space (Brugger et al., 1997, as cited in Blanke, 2012; Heydrich & Blanke, 2013).
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My paper examines three of the more commonly studied AP:
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Autoscopic hallucination
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Out-of-body experiences
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Heautoscopy
Autoscopic Phenomena
Out-of-body Experiences
Slide from my presentation deck
Heautoscopy
Slide from my presentation deck
