Can We Feel Ownership of an Agent’s Body in Virtual Reality? A mini-review.

From ancient years, the body has been the center of all sensations through which humans experienced and interacted with the outer world. Over the years, this idea hasn’t evolved much, giving rise to theories indicating the durability and rigidness of self-constructed body representations. However, numerous studies in the field of body distortions, out-of-body, and body ownership illusions have brought an end to this previously unquestionable belief. In this review, key experimental findings from these studies are presented and how they shaped the future of the field is explored. Recently, the digital revolution brought a new era to body ownership illusion research through the rise of immersive virtual reality. Since then, several studies have examined the role of virtual reality in the induction of body ownership illusions, focusing on aspects such as visuotactile and visuomotor stimulation, visual perspective, and virtual body appearance. Important findings from these studies are discussed, with conclusions being made with caution, and directions for future work are being proposed.