Being in the dark about your hand: Resolution of visuo-proprioceptive conflict by disowning visible limbs

Conflict between sensory modalities can be resolved by one modality overwriting another. For example, movement of a limb that is visible in a stationary visual afterimage results in selective fading of that limb in the afterimage. We investigated the interaction of these two sensory modalities by inducing a mismatch between visual and proprioceptive hand location. Whereas this discrepancy did not affect the initial appearance of the hand in the afterimage, it did prevent subsequent motion with the hand from affecting the hand's appearance. Location mismatch disconnected the visual and proprioceptive experiences of the hand, "protecting" the visual afterimage from interaction with proprioception. Investigation of subjective higher order bodily experiences showed a strong negative correlation between afterimage disruption and the subjective feeling of ownership, suggesting that the brain can resolve multimodal location mismatch by 'disowning' a visible limb, and that the interaction between proprioception and vision is mediated by higher order bodily experiences. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.