# Double body effect induced by integrating proprioceptive-vestibular and visual information

## TL;DR

Healthy people can experience owning and locating two bodies at once through virtual reality combining sensory and visual cues.

## Contribution

Demonstrates the Double Body Effect in healthy individuals using VR, challenging traditional views of self-body relations.

## Key findings

- Healthy subjects experienced double body ownership and location under sensory and visual manipulations.
- Self-location and body-location are distinct experiences, indicating a complex relationship between self and body.
- The Double Body Effect offers a model for understanding the phenomenon of heautoscopy.

## Abstract

Most studies in bodily self-consciousness were limited to the case of a single body. We performed VR experiments to test the hypothesis that it is possible for healthy subjects to experience the Double Body Effect—the experiential combination of double body ownership and double body-location. Under proprioceptive-vestibular and visual manipulations, participants wobbled involuntarily while watching two identical avatars doing exactly the same. The results showed that, in both the 1PP and 3PP conditions, it was indeed possible for healthy subjects to experience the Double Body Effect. This reveals that body ownership and body location are more flexible than most studies have considered so far. It also suggests that self-location and body-location are not the same experiences, and that the relation between self and body is more complicated than both traditional dualism and contemporary reductionism. Finally, our findings can serve as a preliminary model for understanding the perplexing phenomenology of heautoscopy.

•Healthy subjects can experience double body ownership and double body-location•Double Body Effect can be induced by combining proprioceptive-vestibular and visual signals•Double Body Effect can serve as a preliminary model for understanding heautoscopy

Healthy subjects can experience double body ownership and double body-location

Double Body Effect can be induced by combining proprioceptive-vestibular and visual signals

Double Body Effect can serve as a preliminary model for understanding heautoscopy

Neuroscience; Behavioral neuroscience; Cognitive neuroscience; Human-computer interaction