cool, with a twist

The rubber-hand illusion involves placing a rubber hand in front of the participant in their field of vision and near to their real hand. The real hand is then concealed behind a partition. If the real hand and the rubber hand are touched or stroked in the same way and at the same time, the participant tries to co-ordinate what they are feeling (their own hand being stroked) and seeing (the rubber hand being stroked). They can experience a shift in where they believe their hand is to the position of the rubber hand.

The study is basically about self-awareness and has implications in a wide range of applications, from pain management to stroke recovery to eating disorders to autism. It displays a two-way street between the mind and the body.

I, of course, wondered what would happen if, at the end of the session, the clinicians pulled out a big hammer and smashed it down on the rubber hand, though the article doesnt discuss such an action. My wife, however, tells me that I am horrible.