'Embreathment' illusion reveals hierarchical influence of respiratory, visual and spatial signals on corporeal awareness

Recent theories posit that physiological signals contribute to corporeal awareness – the basic feeling that one has a body (body ownership) which acts according to one’s will (body agency) and occupies a specific position (body location). However, these signals are notoriously difficult to manipulate. Using immersive virtual reality, we found that an ecological mapping of real respiratory patterns onto a virtual body led to illusory changes of corporeal awareness. This new bodily illusion, called ‘embreathment’, revealed that breathing uniquely influences corporeal awareness over and above other bodily cues. In particular, breathing turned out to be almost as important as visual appearance for inducing body ownership, and more important than any other cue for body agency. By showing that respiratory, visual and spatial signals exert an interoception-mediated, specific, and weighted influence on the fundamental feeling that one is an embodied agent, we pave the way for a comprehensive hierarchical model of corporeal awareness.