The rubber hand illusion increases heat pain threshold

Gábor, Hegedűs; Darnai, Gergely; Szolcsányi, Tibor; Feldmann, Ádám; Janszky, József; Kállai, János

doi:10.1002/j.1532-2149.2014.00466.x

Cited by 53 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…However, in disagreement with Mohan's finding are the results of another RHI-pain study. Using three conditions in a within subjects design, Hegedus and collaborators found that both RHI and vision of the own hand resulted in slightly (but significantly) higher pain thresholds, compared to the asynchronous stroking control condition (Hegedüs et al, 2014). Similar findings were found in a study investigating the effects of the RHI on the perceived discomfort caused by cold stimuli.…”

Section: Rubber Hand Illusion and Painmentioning

confidence: 55%

Real, rubber or virtual: The vision of “one’s own” body as a means for pain modulation. A narrative review

Martini

2016

Consciousness and Cognition

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In the last few years a branch of pain research has been focussing on the modulatory effects of the vision of the body on pain perception. So, for instance, the vision of one's own real body has been proven to induce analgesic effects. On the other hand, bodily illusions such as the rubber hand illusion have provided new tools for the study of perceptual processes during altered body ownership states. Recently, new paradigms of body ownership made use of a technology that is going places both in clinical and in experimental settings, i.e. virtual reality. While the vision of one's own real body has been proven to yield compelling analgesic effects, slightly more controversial are those attributed to the vision of "owned" dummy bodies. This review will discuss the studies that examined the effects on pain perception of the vision of the own body, with or without body ownership illusions.

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Section: Rubber Hand Illusion and Painmentioning

confidence: 55%

Real, rubber or virtual: The vision of “one’s own” body as a means for pain modulation. A narrative review

Martini

2016

Consciousness and Cognition

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“…This is reminiscent of the so‐called rubber hand illusion (RHI, Botvinick and Cohen, ), in which perceived ownership over an artificial limb can be induced via the congruence of vision and touch. There is evidence that the RHI may reduce pain (Hegedüs et al., ; Martini et al., ; Siedlecka et al., ). It remains to be shown to what extent some of the divergent results can be explained by methodological differences (Mohan et al., ; Nierula et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visually induced analgesia during massage treatment in chronic back pain patients

Löffler

Trojan

Zieglgänsberger

et al. 2017

European Journal of Pain

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“…somatosensory input from the skin of the real hand (out of view) and visual input from the eyes watching the rubber hand being stroked. The cerebrum appears to attribute stronger reliance on the visual frame of reference to generate a final perceptual experience that involves distortion of position sense (proprioceptive drift) of the real hand which is relocated to the space occupied by the rubber hand [33] [9,34].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies have found that perceived body ownership may increase pain threshold and decrease pain intensity to experimentally induced pain [34,35], although Mohan et al [33] found that pain threshold was not affected during the rubber hand illusion (in view) when the real hand (out of view) received noxious thermal stimuli. Chang et al [36] found that the sympathetic response to acupuncture needle stimulation was influenced by visual expectation rather than by modifications of body ownership producing greater sympathetic responses measured by skin conductance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A preliminary investigation into psychophysiological effects of threatening a perceptually embodied rubber hand in healthy human participants

Johnson

Smith

Yellow

et al. 2016

Scandinavian Journal of Pain

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AbstractBackground and aimsThreatening a perceptually embodied rubber hand with noxious stimuli has been shown to generate levels of anxiety similar to that experienced when a real hand is threatened. The aim of this study was to investigate skin conductance response, self-reported anxiety and the incidence, type and location of sensations when a perceptually embodied rubber hand was exposed to threatening and non-threatening stimuli.MethodsA repeated measures cross-over design was used whereby 20 participants (⊕18 years, 14 females) received a threatening (syringe needle) and non-threatening (soft brush) stimulus to a perceptually embodied rubber hand. Perceptual embodiment was achieved using a soft brush to synchronously stroke the participant’s real hand (out of view) and a rubber hand (in view). Then the investigator approached the rubber hand with a syringe needle (threat) or soft brush (non-threat).ResultsRepeated measures ANOVA found that approaching the perceptually embodied rubber hand with either stimulus produced statistically significant reductions in the rated intensity of response to the following questions (p < 0.01): ‘How strongly does it feel like the rubber hand is yours?’; ‘How strongly does it feel like the rubber hand is part of your body?’; and ‘How strongly does it feel you can move the rubber hand?’. However, there were no statistically significant differences in scores between needle and brush stimuli. Repeated measures ANOVA on skin conductance response found statistically significant effects for experimental Events (baseline; stroking; perceptual embodiment; stimuli approaching rubber hand; stimuli touching rubber hand; p <0.001) but not for Condition (needle versus brush p = 0.964) or experimental Event × Condition interaction (p = 0.160). Ten of the 20 participants (50%) reported that they experienced a sensation arising from the rubber hand when the rubber hand was approached and touched by either the needle and/or brush but these sensations lacked precision in location, timing, and nature.Conclusion and implicationsOur preliminary findings suggest that the increase in arousal in response to stimuli entering the peripersonal space may not be selective for threat. There was tentative evidence that more intense sensations were experienced when a perceptually embodied rubber hand was approached by a threatening stimulus. Our findings provide initial insights and should serve as a catalyst for further research.

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The rubber hand illusion increases heat pain threshold

Abstract: The RHI increases heat pain threshold and the analgesic effect of the RHI is comparable with that of seeing one's own hand. The latter finding may have clinical implications.

Cited by 53 publications

References 23 publications

Real, rubber or virtual: The vision of “one’s own” body as a means for pain modulation. A narrative review

Real, rubber or virtual: The vision of “one’s own” body as a means for pain modulation. A narrative review

Visually induced analgesia during massage treatment in chronic back pain patients

A preliminary investigation into psychophysiological effects of threatening a perceptually embodied rubber hand in healthy human participants

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