Thought consciousness and source monitoring depend on robotically-controlled sensorimotor conflicts and illusory states

Thought insertion (TI) is characterized by the experience that certain thoughts, occurring in one’s mind, are not one’s own, but the thoughts of somebody else and suggestive of a psychotic disorder. We report a robotics-based method able to investigate the behavioural and subjective mechanisms of TI in healthy participants. We used a robotic device to alter body perception by providing online sensorimotor stimulation, while participants performed cognitive tasks implying source monitoring of mental states attributed to either oneself or another person. Across several experiments, conflicting sensorimotor stimulation reduced the distinction between self- versus other-generated thoughts and was, moreover, associated with the experimentally generated feeling of being in the presence of an alien agent and subjective aspects of TI. Introducing a new robotics-based approach that enables the experimental study of the brain mechanisms of TI, these results link TI to predictable self-other shifts in source monitoring and specific sensorimotor processes.

Cogno-Vest: A Torso-Worn, Force Display to Experimentally Induce Specific Hallucinations and Related Bodily Sensations

Olaf Blanke, Hannes Bleuler, Atena Fadaeijouybari, Masayuki Hara, Kenny Jeanmonod, Oliver Alan Kannape, Jevita Potheegadoo

Recent advances in virtual reality and robotic technologies have allowed researchers to explore the mechanisms underlying bodily aspects of self-consciousness which are largely attributed to the multisensory and sensorimotor processing of bodily signals (bodily self-consciousness, BSC). One key contribution to BSC, that is currently poorly addressed due to the lack of a wearable solution, concerns realistic collision sensations on the torso. Here, we introduce and validate a proof-of-concept prototype of torso-worn force display, the Cogno-vest, that provides mechanical touch on the user s back in a sensorimotor perception experiment. In a first empirical study, we characterized human finger poking (N=28). In order to match these poking characteristics and meet the wearability criteria, we used bi-directional, push-pull solenoids as a force actuator in the Cogno-vest. Subsequently, and based on an iterative design procedure, a body-conforming, unisex, torso-worn force display was prototyped. Finally, we conducted a behavioral study that investigated BSC in 25 healthy participants by introducing conflicting sensorimotor signals between their hand and torso (back). Using the final reiteration of the Cogno-vest we successfully replicated previous findings on illusory states of BSC, characterized by presence hallucinations (PH) and passivity symptoms, and achieved higher illusion ratings compared to static conditions used in prior studies.

2021

Embodied space in architecture, cognitive neuroscience, and virtual reality

Isabella Maria Pasqualini

Recent findings in cognitive neuroscience enable improved understanding of embodiment and egocentric space in architecture. From a historical perspective the human body has been inferred as a reference in the debate of architectonic proportion. It was suggested that architectonic form moulds the subjective experience of the environment in contingency with skilful articulation of geometrical proportions in a three-dimensional construct. Modern science recalls several notions of how perception, thought and action are embodied. Embodiment and the sense of body ownership as such have been linked to multisensory and own-body processing, allowing for a relationship between aspects of the self to the conception of architectonic space and theory. Investigations about multisensory integration of architectonic space and its relation to own-body processing may therefore provide scientific insight to metaphorical and functional associations with the human bodily experience of architectonic space and its digital representation including perspective and immersive virtual reality. Attempts to sketch an interaction between architecture and cognitive neuroscience may bring about a design discipline based on multisensory own-body processing with permeable borders to contemporary science and technologies. This PhD thesis introduces digital space and cognitive neuroscience to the investigation of embodiment in architecture using techniques from immersive virtual reality and cognitive psychology. Here, three experimental studies using immersive virtual reality were based on the phenomenology of own-body perception introducing parameters from architecture. With such setups we tested whether bodily self-consciousness may be associated to architecture through a visuo-tactile conflict, and, whether changes in the architectonic space modulate bodily self-consciousness. Our results relate bodily self-consciousness with architecture specific perceptions, as well as bodily stability. Also, we observed perceptual changes related to visual perspective. We discuss such findings with regard to bodily feelings and perceived geometry through a critical confrontation with notions of embodiment in architecture.

EPFL2012

Embodied space in architecture, cognitive neuroscience, and virtual reality

Isabella Maria Pasqualini

EPFL2012