The temporal synchrony of felt and seen touches is an important factor in the rubber hand illusion, an experimental paradigm to induce changes in the representation of our body. Body representations are based on an integration of various cues from different sensory modalities.
In several experiments, we studied the necessary and sufficient conditions for the RHI.
As the physical body undergoes fundamental changes during the process of aging, another important question refers to the age-related changes in body representations. The concept of embodied cognition received a lot of experimental support, and in a recent review paper we argue that many cognitive deficits that are accumulating with increasing age can be explained by bodily changes.
Key publications:
Riemer, M., Trojan, J., Beauchamp, M., & Fuchs, X. (2019). The rubber hand universe: On the impact of methodological differences in the rubber hand illusion. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 104: 268-280 [link]
Riemer, M., Wolbers, T., & Kuehn, E. (2019). Preserved multisensory body representations in advanced age. Scientific Reports 9: 2663 [link]
Kuehn, E., Perez-Lopez, M.B., Diersch, N., Döhler, J., Wolbers, T., & Riemer, M. (2018). Embodiment in the aging mind. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 86: 207-225. [link]
Riemer, M., Bublatzky, F., Trojan, J., & Alpers, G.W. (2015). Defensive activation during the rubber hand illusion: Ownership versus proprioceptive drift. Biological Psychology, 109: 86-92. [link]
Riemer, M., Fuchs, X., Bublatzky, F., Kleinböhl, D., Hölzl, R., & Trojan, J. (2014). The rubber hand illusion depends on a congruent mapping between real and artificial fingers. Acta Psychologica, 152: 34- 41. [link]
Riemer, M., Kleinböhl, D., Hölzl, R., & Trojan, J. (2013). Action and perception in the rubber hand illusion. Experimental Brain Research, 229: 383-393. [link]