Body ownership and agency altered by an electromyographically-controlled robotic arm

Understanding how we consciously experience our bodies is a fundamental issue in cognitive neuroscience. Two fundamental components of this are the sense of body ownership (the experience of the body as one’s own) and the sense of agency (the feeling of control over one’s bodily actions). These constructs have been used to investigate the incorporation of prostheses. To date, however, no evidence has been provided showing whether representations of ownership and agency in amputees are altered when operating a robotic prosthesis. Here we investigated a robotic arm using myoelectric control, for which the user varied the joint position continuously, in a rubber hand illusion task. Fifteen able-bodied participants and three trans-radial amputees were instructed to contract their wrist flexors/extensors alternately, and to watch the robotic arm move. The sense of ownership in both groups was extended to the robotic arm when the wrists of the real and robotic arm were flexed/extended synchro...

探究人类如何有意识地感知自身躯体，是认知神经科学领域的核心议题之一。该议题包含两大核心构成：其一为躯体所有权感知（sense of body ownership），即感知躯体为自身所有的主观体验；其二为动作代理感（sense of agency），即对自身躯体动作拥有掌控权的主观感受。上述两类感知维度已被用于探究假肢的躯体融入效应。然而截至目前，尚无研究证据表明，截肢者在操作机械假肢时，其躯体所有权与动作代理感的神经表征是否会发生改变。本研究依托肌电控制（myoelectric control）的机械臂开展橡胶手错觉（rubber hand illusion）实验，实验中受试者可连续调节机械臂的关节位置。实验共招募15名健康受试者与3名经桡骨截肢患者（trans-radial amputees），要求他们交替收缩腕屈肌与腕伸肌，并观察机械臂的运动。当真实手臂与机械臂的腕部同步屈伸时，两组受试者的躯体所有权感知均延伸至机械臂……