Electroencephalographic evidence for the involvement of mirror neuron and error monitoring related processes in virtual body ownership

Abstract

The illusion that an artificial or virtual object becomes part of one's body has been demonstrated and productively investigated in the past two decades. Empirical and theoretical accounts of this phenomenon suggest that the body ownership illusion relies not on a single process, but rather on the alignment of the biological and the alternative bodies across multiple aspects. However, the portrayal of these aspects and the demarcation of their neurophysiological correlates has yet to be established.Our study examines electroencephalographic (EEG) markers of two extensively studied systems in the context of virtual body ownership illusion: the mirror neuron system (MNS) and the error monitoring system (EMS). We designed an experimental manipulation of brief involuntary virtual hand bounces, which triggers both systems, and examined how the response of EEG markers of these systems to this manipulation is modulated by three aspects of body ownership: agency, visuotactile synchronicity, and semantic congruence between the participant's hands and its virtual representation.We found evidence for enhanced MNS-related suppression of power at the Mu band in the synchronous and semantic congruence conditions. On the other hand, the EMS-related Pe/P300 wave was reduced by semantic congruence. This Pe/P300 effect was stronger among participants who exhibited higher acceptance of the spatial illusion and increased tendency for affective empathy. Mu power and Pe/P300 were not correlated, suggesting a dissociation between the distinct aspects of body ownership they probe. The findings suggest that synchronicity and semantic congruence induce sensorimotor sensitivity to the alternative body, whereas the latter parameter also buffers minor erroneous virtual motions. These neurophysiological markers may be added to the arsenal of body ownership probes, and integrated in VR rehabilitation protocols.

Virtual reality training enhances gait poststroke: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…We presume that performing training with cognitively demanding tasks could possibly have freed up cognitive resources required to maintain balance and eventually reduce cognitive motor interference that precipitates falls 112,113 . Moreover, studies have also speculated that the close biological proximity between virtual and real environment could also promote learning by facilitating activations in the frontoparietal mirror neuron system (MNS) 32,114–116 . Nevertheless, the evidence supporting the engagement of the MNS during virtual tasks is scarce and future work would be needed to establish its involvement with VR.…”

Customizing the human-avatar mapping based on EEG error related potentials

“…Holroyd and Coles [7] proposed that an error-processing system in the ACC serves as reinforcement-learning signals to correct errors. Further studies have also shown that error-related potentials (ErrPs) spontaneously arise when users experience BiEs during avatar-based interaction in VR [4,[8][9][10][11][12][13]. These findings support the notion of an accumulation of errors in these conditions [14][15][16], where cognitive processes in embodiment contribute to a global error in user experience.…”

Rage against the Empathy Machine Revisited: The Ethics of the Empathic Affordances of Virtual Reality

“…This manipulation often results in a sense of ownership over the fake hand, which was validated and replicated using various behavioural and physiological measures measurements (Riemer et al, 2019). Importantly, an illusion of ownership was successfully elicited toward virtual hands as well (IJsselsteijn, de Kort, and Haans 2006;Raz et al, 2019).…”