Ownership of the affected leg is further reduced following deceptive behaviors in body integrity dysphoria

Scattolin, Marina; Panasiti, Maria Serena; Ho, Jingshan; Lenggenhager, Bigna; Aglioti, Salvatore Maria

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.107551

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 76 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…While there is a large amount of data showing altered body ownership in BID, the sense of agency has been less explored. A recent study by Scattolin et al, (2023) showed a reduced self-reported sense of agency for the affected limb in BID compared to controls, though less pronounced than the difference in the sense of ownership. This might explain the smaller between group difference in the sense of agency for the amputated virtual avatar.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Feeling at Home in a Virtually Amputated Body; Neural and Phenomenological Effects of Illusory Embodiment in Body Integrity Dysphoria

Saetta,

Peter,

Ruddy

et al. 2024

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Body Integrity Dysphoria (BID) is characterized by a profound incongruity between the physical body and a desired, i.e., amputated body, often leading to a desire for limb amputation. Virtual reality (VR) intervention and multisensory stimulation paradigms provide powerful tools to enable transient, illusory embodiment of the desired body, thus experiencing a virtual amputation. This study investigates the impact of VR on neural responses in 18 individuals with BID compared to 18 age and sex matched healthy controls. We used both task-based and resting-state MRI to assess activity when viewing images of the body in the desired versus the undesired state before and after VR, along with functional connectivity measures. In VR, participants played a game with an amputated body, which was adapted for the BID group to simulate their desired bodily shape, seen from a first-person perspective and mimicking the participant's leg movements. Compared to controls, individuals with BID demonstrated a stronger self-reported sense of ownership and control over the virtual body. Task-based fMRI results showed increased activity in the right superior parietal lobule (rSPL), right angular gyrus, and right supplementary motor area pre-VR in the BID group, which normalized post-VR. Resting-state fMRI revealed reduced connectivity in the rSPL, visuo-occipital areas, fronto-parietal, and fronto-striatal mirror and limb system networks pre-VR, also normalising post-VR. Additionally, there was a normalization in the pattern of increased connectivity of dopaminergic cortico-striatal tracts connecting the rSPL and the pars orbitalis of the right inferior frontal gyrus with the nucleus accumbens. Our findings suggest that virtual embodiment effectively modulates BID-related neural networks, potentially providing a controlled, cost-effective, and safe approach to address body dissatisfaction. They also underscore the significance of VR in unravelling the intricate relationship between the body and self, with potential implications for other psychiatric disorders of the bodily self.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Feeling at Home in a Virtually Amputated Body; Neural and Phenomenological Effects of Illusory Embodiment in Body Integrity Dysphoria

Saetta,

Peter,

Ruddy

et al. 2024

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Training the Moral Self: An 8-Week Mindfulness Meditation Program Leads to Reduced Dishonest Behavior and Increased Regulation of Interoceptive Awareness

Feruglio,

Panasiti,

Crescentini

et al. 2023

Mindfulness

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives Recent meta-analyses suggest that mindfulness meditation may enhance prosocial behavior, while evidence regarding moral behavior is still scarce. We combined a randomized controlled mindfulness training design with an ecologically valid moral decision-making task (Temptation to Lie Card Game; TLCG), in which participants were tempted to deceive an opponent to increase their monetary payoff. Method TLCG and self-report measures (in the domains of attention regulation, body awareness, emotion regulation, and change in the perspective of the self) were administered to participants who underwent the mindfulness meditation training (experimental group, n = 44) or were waitlisted (control group, n = 25) twice: before and after the 8-week training. Results Concerning moral decision-making, we observed a significant effect involving condition, time, and group. Trained participants deceived significantly less in the post-training as compared with the pre-training phase (p = 0.03), while untrained ones showed no significant change (p = 0.58). In the self-reports, significant effects involving time and group were found for the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA-2) in Self-Regulation, Attention Regulation, Body Listening, and for the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) in Non-Reactivity to inner experience. Trained participants showed a time-related increase in all subscales scores, while untrained ones did not. Finally, a moderation analysis revealed a significant interaction between weekly mindfulness meditation training minutes and MAIA-2 Attention Regulation (post-training) on moral behavior change. Conclusions Our preliminary results suggest that mindfulness meditation practice decreases self-serving dishonest behavior and increases awareness of one’s bodily and emotional state. In particular, the amount of mindfulness meditation practice predicted moral behavior change in practitioners who reported the highest regulation of attention towards internal bodily signals. Preregistration This study is not preregistered.

show abstract

Ownership of the affected leg is further reduced following deceptive behaviors in body integrity dysphoria

Cited by 2 publications

References 76 publications

Feeling at Home in a Virtually Amputated Body; Neural and Phenomenological Effects of Illusory Embodiment in Body Integrity Dysphoria

Feeling at Home in a Virtually Amputated Body; Neural and Phenomenological Effects of Illusory Embodiment in Body Integrity Dysphoria

Training the Moral Self: An 8-Week Mindfulness Meditation Program Leads to Reduced Dishonest Behavior and Increased Regulation of Interoceptive Awareness

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About