The second me: Seeing the real body during humanoid robot embodiment produces an illusion of bi-location.

Synchronized multisensory cues can make healthy people feel as though their self is located outside their body, resembling an out-of-body experience. This study tested whether healthy individuals can also feel a sense of self in two bodies at once. Using a humanoid robot embodiment system, participants received audio-visual feedback and controlled the robot's head movements and walking. When they observed themselves through the embodied robot, they reported an illusion strongly resembling heautoscopy—the experience of seeing one's own body from a second body. The results suggest that a healthy human mind can bi-locate, perceiving self-location and self-identification in two different bodies simultaneously.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Whole-body embodiment studies have shown that synchronized multi-sensory cues can trick a healthy human mind to perceive self-location outside the bodily borders, producing an illusion that resembles an out-of-body experience (OBE). But can a healthy mind also perceive the sense of self in more than one body at the same time? To answer this question, we created a novel artificial reduplication of one's body using a humanoid robot embodiment system. We first enabled individuals to embody the humanoid robot by providing them with audio-visual feedback and control of the robot head movements and walk, and then explored the self-location and self-identification perceived by them when they observed themselves through the embodied robot. Our results reveal that, when individuals are exposed to the humanoid body reduplication, they experience an illusion that strongly resembles heautoscopy, suggesting that a healthy human mind is able to bi-locate in two different bodies simultaneously.