Panamah
07-02-2004, 11:16 AM
Brain fooled into feeling fake hand
Tim Radford
Friday July 2, 2004
The Guardian
Scientists have caught the brain in the act of "feeling" a hand it does not have - by using a rubber hand. The confirmation could throw fresh light on phantom limb syndrome reported by amputees.
Henrik Ehrsson, of University College London, and colleagues from Oxford report in Science Express online that although the brain's premotor cortex coordinates vision, touch and a sense of position, vision dominates. They proved it by teasing volunteers into believing that they could "feel" a rubber hand. Volunteers hid their right hands beneath a table while a rubber hand was placed in front of them at an angle that suggested it could be part of the body. Both rubber and hidden hands were stroked while researchers observed a brain scan. On average, within 11 seconds, the volunteers started to feel the rubber hand belonged to them.
Tim Radford
Friday July 2, 2004
The Guardian
Scientists have caught the brain in the act of "feeling" a hand it does not have - by using a rubber hand. The confirmation could throw fresh light on phantom limb syndrome reported by amputees.
Henrik Ehrsson, of University College London, and colleagues from Oxford report in Science Express online that although the brain's premotor cortex coordinates vision, touch and a sense of position, vision dominates. They proved it by teasing volunteers into believing that they could "feel" a rubber hand. Volunteers hid their right hands beneath a table while a rubber hand was placed in front of them at an angle that suggested it could be part of the body. Both rubber and hidden hands were stroked while researchers observed a brain scan. On average, within 11 seconds, the volunteers started to feel the rubber hand belonged to them.