Give It a Tug and Feel It Grow: Extending Body Perception Through the Universal Nature of Illusory Finger Stretching. (26th October 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Newport, Roger; Auty, Kelly; Carey, Mark; Greenfield, Katie; Howard, Ellen M.; Ratcliffe, Natasha; Thair, Hayley; Themelis, Kristy
• Is Part Of: I-Perception. Volume 6:Number 5(2015)
• Publication Date: 2015-10-26
• Subjects: multisensory illusion -- finger stretching -- children -- MIRAGE -- not rubber hand illusion; Perception -- Periodicals; Visual perception -- Periodicals; Perception; Perception; Electronic journals; Periodical; Fulltext; Internet Resources; Periodicals; Periodicals; 153.7
• DOI: 10.1177/2041669515599310
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2041-6695

Abstract

If British teenage boy asks you to pull his finger, it is usually an indication that he simultaneously wishes to break wind. If you were to tell him that you could pull his finger and stretch it to twice its length, you might expect a similarly irreverent response yet when we pulled the fingers of nearly 600 children and adolescents, 93% reported the illusion of stretching. Grossly distorted body representations need not be the preserve of clinical disorders and can reliably be induced in healthy participants across all ages.