The Effect of the Rubber Hand Illusion on Sensory Thresholds

Gazi University

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Healthy

Treatments: Behavioral: Rubber hand illusion

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04837443

217

Details and patient eligibility

About

The rubber hand illusion (RHI) causes a change in body perception and awareness as a result of the integration of simultaneously perceived visual and tactile stimulation. In the rubber hand illusion (RHI), which was first described in 1998, a realistic hand model is perceived as a part of the body and body awareness is impaired. In the RHI, the participant's real hand is positioned behind a screen so that it is out of sight; The rubber model hand is placed in the field of vision and in the appropriate position with the real hand. Brush is applied simultaneously to the same parts of the real and rubber hands. He/she perceives the rubber hand as his own and the brush starts to feel as if it is being rubbed into his own hand. This method, which causes the illusion of body belonging, has been defined as the rubber hand illusion. During the rubber hand illusion, increased activity was observed in the ventral premotor cortex, infraparietal cortex and cerebellum in functional MRI. It is suggested that this phenomenon occurs with the integration of interrelated visual, tactile and proprioceptive senses reaching the premotor cortex.

Quantitative sensory tests are standardized subjective clinical sensitivity tests that require the collaboration of the person to be examined. In the tests, calibrated stimuli are applied to capture perception and pain thresholds, thus providing information about sensory thresholds.

The impairment of body perception caused by RHI contributes to the multi-faceted understanding of sensory perception, higher-level cognitive processes, brain mapping and functions. In the studies; It has been suggested that the conflict between visual and proprioceptive sensory information created during the rubber hand illusion is resolved by the attenuation of somatosensory input at the cortical level.

As far as we know, tactile sensory threshold from quantitative sensory tests, two-point discrimination from cortical senses, pressure pain threshold measured by the algometer, and vibration threshold variation during and after rubber hand burning, which causes changes in body perception, have not been studied before. In this study, the relationship between the RHI phenomenon and sensory thresholds will be evaluated.

Enrollment: 20 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Healthy
• 18-65 years old age

Exclusion criteria

• Neuropathy
• Presence of any known neurological or psychiatric disease
• Inability to cooperate with the tests to be performed
• Amputation and nerve damage in the upper extremities
• Upper extremities dysfunction due to nerve damage

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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20 participants in 2 patient groups

Synchronous working group

Experimental group

Treatment:

Behavioral: Rubber hand illusion

Asynchronous working group

Sham Comparator group

Treatment:

Behavioral: Rubber hand illusion