How to really feel like you’ve got three arms

We can conceive of having two heads or three arms , but we ca n’t really comprehend what that would be like … at least , that ’s what scientists always assumed . But now a raw experiment has shown we really can experience three arms at once .

As humans , we have a basic , innate soundbox plan , one that includes one psyche , two arms , two leg , and so on . Outside of some fairly severe aberrations , nobody has more features than what is include in our body plan , and psychologist and neuroscientist assume this fundamentally limited our trunk image , meaning nobody could ever really experience the sensation of get , say , three arms .

But investigator at Sweden ’s Karolinska Institutet have offered an audacious response to this assumption . They created an experiment where subjects had a prosthetic but realistic rubber arm put right next to their right branch . The experimenters then start touch both good arms with a brush in the corresponding emplacement , trying to make the two brushes identical in time and location .

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That ’s when something unearthly happened , as researcher Arvid Guterstam explains :

“ What chance then is that a fight arises in the wit concerning which of the good hands belongs to the participant ’s body . What one could expect is that only one of the hand is experienced as one ’s own , presumably the real weapon system . But what we found , astonishingly , is that the mastermind solves this conflict by accepting both right hand as part of the body image , and the discipline experience take in an spare third arm . ”

you may see the illusion in action inthis video , courtesy of New Scientist . But how do we know the brain really accepted this third arm as part of the body ? Once the head game was established , the experimenters “ threatened ” either the real or prosthetic hand with a kitchen knife , and then they measured the subjects ’ physiological reaction . Real or bogus , it did n’t matter – the subjects had exactly the same accent reaction , and this only figure out when the illusion was in core .

Bark Watch

For all intent and purposes , the subjects ’ body image had expanded to let in a third arm . Researcher Henrik Ehrsson say there could be important aesculapian applications to all this … and then he gets a petty crazy with it :

“ It may be potential in the futurity to extend a stroke affected role , who has become paralysed on one side of the dead body , a prosthetic limb that can be used and experienced as his own , while the paralysed arm remain within the affected role ’s body image . It is also conceivable that citizenry with demanding study position could gain of an extra arm , such as firemen during rescue cognitive operation , or paramedics in the domain . ”

ViaPLoS ONE .

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