EQUIVALENCE OF THE CLASSICAL RUBBER HAND ILLUSION AND THE VIRTUAL HAND ILLUSION

Computer technologies implementation into the body illusions research is increasing because they allow to controllably model complex processes that cannot be realised in ordinary life. It was previously demonstrated that the rubber hand illusion may be reconstructed in the virtual setting and cause similar changes in the somatoperception when the virtual hand begins to feel like your own. This result suggests that the phenomenological experience obtained in the classical illusion and in its virtual reality version has much in common. However, a direct experimental comparison of the two illusion variants has not been made, therefore, in this research we studied the equivalence of the rubber and virtual hand illusions (RHI and VHI). The sample consisted of 16 subjects (18-25 years). As registration methods we used a subjective sense of ownership of an artificial limb and the proprioceptive drift of the real hand towards the illusory hand. The analysis has proved the equivalence of illusions.