Washington, August 15 (ANI): A new research has said that a visual projection of human heartbeats can be used to generate an 'out-of-body experience.'
The study, conducted by Jane Aspell of Anglia Ruskin University in the UK and Lukas Heydrich of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, is novel in that it shows that information about the internal state of the body - in this case, the heartbeat - can be used to change how people experience their own body and self.
Volunteers in the study were fitted with a head mounted display (HMD) that served as 'virtual reality goggles.' They were filmed in real time by a video camera connected to the HMD, which allowed them to view their own body standing two meters in front of them.
By also recording the volunteers' heartbeat signals using electrodes, the timing of the heartbeat was used to trigger a bright flashing outline which was superimposed on the virtual body shown via the HMD.
After watching the outline flash on and off in sync with the heartbeat for several minutes, the subjects experienced a stronger identification with the virtual body, reporting that it felt more like their own body.
They also perceived that they were at a different location in the room than their physical body, reporting feeling closer to their double than they actually were, and they experienced touch at a different location to their physical body.
Aspell said that this research demonstrated that the experience of one's self can be altered when presented with information about the internal state of one's body, like a heartbeat.
She said that this is compatible with the theory that the brain generates people's experience of self by merging information about our body from multiple sources, including the eyes, the skin, the ears, and even one's internal organs.
The new research has been published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. (ANI)