Tuning of temporo‐occipital activity by frontal oscillations during virtual mirror exposure causes erroneous self‐recognition

Abstract

Self-face recognition, a hallmark of self-awareness, depends on 'off-line' stored information about one's face and 'on-line' multisensory-motor face-related cues. The brain mechanisms of how on-line sensory-motor processes affect off-line neural self-face representations are unknown. This study used 3D virtual reality to create a 'virtual mirror' in which participants saw an avatar's face moving synchronously with their own face movements. Electroencephalographic (EEG) analysis during virtual mirror exposure revealed mu oscillations in sensory-motor cortex signalling on-line congruency between the avatar's and participants' movements. After such exposure and compatible with a change in their off-line self-face representation, participants were more prone to recognize the avatar's face as their own, and this was also reflected in the activation of face-specific regions in the inferotemporal cortex. Further EEG analysis showed that the on-line sensory-motor effects during virtual mirror exposure caused these off-line visual effects, revealing the brain mechanisms that maintain a coherent self-representation, despite our continuously changing appearance.

Transcranial alternating current stimulation to the inferior parietal lobe decreases mu suppression to egocentric, but not allocentric hand movements

“…Pineda, 2005;Rizzolatti et al, 2001) and has been associated with greater sense of agency (e.g. Serino et al, 2015). However, there is some support for their findings as Our results demonstrated -suppression during both egocentric and allocentric movements, however, after tACS we only observed reduced -suppression during observation of egocentric movements.…”

“…One may also question whether observation of a movement from the egocentric perspective can be perceived as belonging to the self more than to others. It has been demonstrated that observation of a virtual morphed face can be processed and perceived as more similar to one's own face if it moves in synchrony with the observer's self-initiated movements (Serino et al, 2015). It is assumed that this effect is due to matching between predicted proprioceptive and somatosensory consequences of executed movements and visual feedback.…”

Learning Empathy Through Virtual Reality: Multiple Strategies for Training Empathy-Related Abilities Using Body Ownership Illusions in Embodied Virtual Reality

“…After seeing the image of avatars with different phenotypes, subjects revealed a greater self-identification with more diverse phenotypic characteristics. Using enfacement illusions with EEG measurements, Serino et al (2015) observed activation of face-specific regions correlating to the increased identification with the avatar's face.…”

Just Before I Recognize Myself: The Role of Featural and Multisensory Cues Leading up to Explicit Mirror Self‐Recognition

“…As shown by Serino et al. () with adults, the use of virtual mirror setups could disentangle the respective contribution of visual, tactile, and proprioceptive signals in the development of mirror self‐recognition, as well as the distinction between self and others.…”