The second me: Seeing the real body during humanoid robot embodiment produces an illusion of bi-location.
Laura Aymerich-Franch, Damien Petit, Gowrishankar Ganesh, Abderrahmane Kheddar
Consciousness and Cognition November 1, 2016 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.09.017 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Healthy individuals |
| Keywords | Autoscopic phenomena Full-body illusion Heautoscopy Humanoid robot embodiment Mental bilocation Out-of-body experience Sense of self |
| Key findings | When individuals embodied a humanoid robot and observed themselves through it, they experienced an illusion resembling heautoscopy, suggesting the mind can bi-locate in two bodies simultaneously. |
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.