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Standing in Someone Elses Shoes, Almost for Real
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times
Posted: December 12th, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/health/02mind.html?partner...
Neuroscientists have shown that they can [create] a body swapping illusion that could have a profound effect on a range of therapeutic techniques. At the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience last month, Swedish researchers presented evidence that the brain, when tricked by optical and sensory illusions, can quickly adopt any other human form, no matter how different, as its own. You can see the possibilities, putting a male in a female body, young in old, white in black and vice versa, said Dr. Henrik Ehrsson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The technique is simple. A subject stands or sits opposite the scientist, as if engaged in an interview. Both are wearing headsets, with special goggles, the scientists containing small film cameras. The goggles are rigged so the subject sees what the scientist sees: to the right and left are the scientists arms, and below is the scientists body. To add a physical element, the researchers have each person squeeze the others hand, as if in a handshake. Now the subject can see and feel the new body. In a matter of seconds, the illusion is complete. In a series of studies, using mannequins and stroking both bodies bellies simultaneously, the Karolinska researchers have found that men and women say they not only feel they have taken on the new body, but also unconsciously cringe when it is poked or threatened. In previous work, neuroscientists have induced various kinds of out-of-body experiences using similar techniques. The brain is so easily tricked, they say, precisely because it has spent a lifetime in its own body.
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