The slime hand illusion: Nonproprioceptive ownership distortion specific to the skin region. (November 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kodaka, Kenri; Sato, Yutaro; Imai, Kento
• Is Part Of: I-Perception. Volume 13:Number 6(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-11
• Subjects: nonproprioceptive ownership distortion -- mirror-visual feedback -- slime hand illusion; Perception -- Periodicals; Visual perception -- Periodicals; Perception; Perception; Electronic journals; Periodical; Fulltext; Internet Resources; Periodicals; Periodicals; 153.7
• DOI: 10.1177/20416695221137731
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2041-6695

Abstract

The "slime hand illusion" is a simple and robust technique that uses mirror-visual feedback to produce a nonproprioceptive ownership distortion. The illusion can be easily evoked by the participant watching the experimenter pinching and pulling a chunk of slime in a mirror while the participant's hand, hidden behind the mirror, is similarly manipulated. This procedure produces a feeling of one of their fingers or the skin of their whole hand being stretched or deformed in a similar way to the visible slime. A public experiment found that more than 90% of participants reported a strong sense of skin or finger stretching. This report details a laboratory experiment performed to characterize the mechanisms behind the illusion more robustly. It reproduced this result and found that participants experienced a drift in their sense of skin location of approximately 30 cm on average, which is beyond the conventionally accepted range of proprioceptive drift.