ArticleThe European journal of neuroscience2018
Non-invasive brain stimulation of motor cortex induces embodiment when integrated with virtual reality feedback.
Article in The European journal of neuroscience, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Virtual reality and non-invasive brain stimulation for rehabilitation applications: a systematic review.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2020Pooled it
- What is the effect of bodily illusions on corticomotoneuronal excitability? A systematic review.PloS one · 2019Pooled it
- Proprioception impacts body perception in healthy aging - Insights from a psychophysical and computational approach.iScience · 2025Article
- Virtual body continuity during action observation affects motor cortical excitability.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Neuroanatomical correlates of peripersonal space: bridging the gap between perception, action, emotion and social cognition.Brain structure & function · 2024Review
- No reduction in motor-evoked potential amplitude during the rubber hand illusion.Brain and behavior · 2023Article
- Monitoring Brain Activity in VR: EEG and Neuroimaging.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2023Article
- Stimulation with acoustic white noise enhances motor excitability and sensorimotor integration.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Assess and rehabilitate body representationsFrontiers in neurorobotics · 2022Article
- Contribution of interaction force to the sense of hand ownership and the sense of hand agency.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Virtual Reality for Neurorehabilitation and Cognitive Enhancement.Brain sciences · 2021Review
- Congruency of Information Rather Than Body Ownership Enhances Motor Performance in Highly Embodied Virtual Reality.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Article
- Virtual reality for the treatment of neuropathic pain in people with spinal cord injuries: A scoping review.The journal of spinal cord medicine · 2021Article
- "Tricking the Brain" Using Immersive Virtual Reality: Modifying the Self-Perception Over Embodied Avatar Influences Motor Cortical Excitability and Action Initiation.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2021Article
- Self-Referential Processing Effects of Non-invasive Brain Stimulation: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Review
- Noninvasive Brain Stimulation & Space Exploration: Opportunities and Challenges.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2020Review
- Which hand is mine? Discriminating body ownership perception in a two-alternative forced-choice task.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2020Article
- Technology Integration Methods for Bi-directional Brain-computer Interfaces and XR-based Interventions.Conference proceedings. IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics · 2020Article
- Mechanisms of the breathing contribution to bodily self-consciousness in healthy humans: Lessons from machine-assisted breathing?Psychophysiology · 2020Article
- A virtual reality platform for multisensory integration studies.Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Previous evidence highlighted the multisensory-motor origin of embodiment - that is, the experience of having a body and of being in control of it - and the possibility of experimentally manipulating it. For instance, an illusory feeling of embodiment towards a fake hand can be triggered by providing synchronous visuo-tactile stimulation to the hand of participants and to a fake hand or by asking participants to move their hand and observe a fake hand moving accordingly (rubber hand illusion). Here, we tested whether it is possible to manipulate embodiment not through stimulation of the participant's hand, but by directly tapping into the brain's hand representation via non-invasive brain stimulation. To this aim, we combined transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), to activate the hand corticospinal representation, with virtual reality (VR), to provide matching (as contrasted to non-matching) visual feedback, mimicking involuntary hand movements evoked by TMS. We show that the illusory embodiment occurred when TMS pulses were temporally matched with VR feedback, but not when TMS was administered outside primary motor cortex, (over the vertex) or when stimulating motor cortex at a lower intensity (that did not activate peripheral muscles). Behavioural (questionnaires) and neurophysiological (motor-evoked-potentials, TMS-evoked-movements) measures further indicated that embodiment was not explained by stimulation per se, but depended on the temporal coherence between TMS-induced activation of hand corticospinal representation and the virtual bodily feedback. This reveals that non-invasive brain stimulation may replace the application of external tactile hand cues and motor components related to volition, planning and anticipation.
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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.