Out-of-body Illusion Induced by Visual-vestibular Stimulation

Overview

Journal iScience

Publisher Cell Press

Date 2024 Jan 1

PMID 38161418

Authors

Hsin-Ping Wu

Estelle Nakul

Sophie Betka

Florian Lance

Bruno Herbelin

Olaf Blanke

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are characterized by the subjective feeling of being located outside one's physical body and perceiving one's own body from an elevated perspective looking downwards. OBEs have been correlated with abnormal integration of bodily signals, including visual and vestibular information. In two studies, we used mixed reality combined with a motion platform to manipulate visual and vestibular integration in healthy participants. Behavioral data and questionnaires show that congruent visual-vestibular stimulation in a self-centered reference frame induced an OBE-like illusion characterized by elevated self-location and feelings of disembodiment and lightness. The OBE-like illusion was also modulated by individuals' visual field dependency assessed by the Rod and Frame Test. These results show that the manipulation of visual-vestibular stimulation in the present study induces various aspects of OBEs and further link OBE to congruency mechanisms between visual and vestibular gravitational and self-motion cues.

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