ArticleScientific reports2015
Conversations between self and self as Sigmund Freud--A virtual body ownership paradigm for self counselling.
Article in Scientific reports, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- EEG biomarkers of the sense of embodiment: methodological gaps and evidence-based recommendations from a systematic review.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2026Pooled it
- Neuroscience of Virtual Reality: From Virtual Exposure to Embodied Medicine.Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking · 2019Pooled it
- Assessing the Clinical Efficacy of a Virtual Reality Tool for the Treatment of Obesity: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Trial
- Neuroendocrine Response and State Anxiety Due to Psychosocial Stress Decrease after a Training with Subject's Own (but Not Another) Virtual Body: An RCT Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- Transfer of motor skill between virtual reality viewed using a head-mounted display and conventional screen environments.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2020Trial
- Non-immersive robot teleoperation does not reliably affect egocentric dishonesty but can influence altruistic dishonesty.iScience · 2026Article
- Self-dialogue with age-congruent versus age-incongruent avatars in immersive virtual reality.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Virtual Meets Reality: A Psychodynamic Perspective on Immersive Technologies.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2025Article
- AI-Enhanced Virtual Reality Self-Talk for Psychological Counseling: Formative Qualitative Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Facing yourself in a virtual reality-assisted perspective-taking intervention: an interpretative phenomenological analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The Role of Virtual Reality in the Management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.Current gastroenterology reports · 2024Review
- Virtual reality roleplays for patients with depression: A user experience evaluation.Internet interventions · 2024Article
- Michelangelo Effect in Virtual Sculpturing: Prospective for Motor Neurorehabilitation in the Metaverse.Journal of cognition · 2024Article
- Feeling connected but dissimilar to one's future self reduces the intention-behavior gap.PloS one · 2024Article
- Ethical Challenges of Virtual Reality Technology Interventions for the Vulnerabilities of Patients With Chronic Pain: Exploration of Technician Responsibility.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- The effect of simulated natural environments in virtual reality and 2D video to reduce stress.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Virtual self-conversation using motivational interviewing techniques to promote healthy eating and physical activity: A usability study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Embodying the avatar of an omnipotent agent modulates the perception of one's own abilities and enhances feelings of invulnerability.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Clinical efficacy of a virtual reality tool for the treatment of obesity: study protocol of a randomised controlled trial.BMJ open · 2022Article
- Virtual reality as a communication medium: a comparative study of forced compliance in virtual reality versus physical world.Virtual reality · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
When people see a life-sized virtual body (VB) from first person perspective in virtual reality they are likely to have the perceptual illusion that it is their body. Additionally such virtual embodiment can lead to changes in perception, implicit attitudes and behaviour based on attributes of the VB. To date the changes that have been studied are as a result of being embodied in a body representative of particular social groups (e.g., children and other race). In our experiment participants alternately switched between a VB closely resembling themselves where they described a personal problem, and a VB representing Dr Sigmund Freud, from which they offered themselves counselling. Here we show that when the counsellor resembles Freud participants improve their mood, compared to the counsellor being a self-representation. The improvement was greater when the Freud VB moved synchronously with the participant, compared to asynchronously. Synchronous VB movement was associated with a much stronger illusion of ownership over the Freud body. This suggests that this form of embodied perspective taking can lead to sufficient detachment from habitual ways of thinking about personal problems, so as to improve the outcome, and demonstrates the power of virtual body ownership to effect cognitive changes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.