Thursday, January 6, 2005

they can' t think it away

joel achenbach in national geographic, january 2005 issue reports that our proprioception (our sense of touch) is easily fooled...

henrik ehrsson positioned a person within an MRI machine, his right hand out of sight but on his leg, while a realistic rubber hand was atop in sight...

a researcher used a small brush to stroke the finger of the real hand... within 15 seconds the test subjects developed a profound sense that the rubber hand was the real hand. the test subjects would flinch when ehrsson threatened to smash his fist on the rubber hand...

subjects were bewildered that they were unable to lift the rubber hand's finger...
they knew what was going on, but no amount of rational thought could dispel the sensory illusion. "they just don't think it," says ehrsson, "they feel it. they can't think it away."

the MRI brain scans showed that the premotor cortex was active during the experiment... a location that ehrsson believes is the seat of our sense of body ownership...

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