Visual perspective and body ownership modulate vicarious somatosensory processing: A systematic review
Matteo P. Lisi, Martina Fusaro, Salvatore Maria Aglioti · 2023
We conducted a systematic review investigating the influence of visual perspective and body ownership (BO) on vicarious somatosensation-the somatosensory resonance during the observation of pain and touch. Indeed, the way in which these sensations can be modulated by blurring the bodily boundaries of self-other distinction is still unclear.We screened Scopus and WebOfScience, and we identified 31 articles, published from 2000 to 2022. Results show that assuming an egocentric perspective enhances vicarious experiences. Studies on synaesthetes suggest that vicarious conscious experiences are associated with an increased tendency to embody fake body parts, even in the absence of congruent multisensory stimulation. Moreover, immersive virtual reality studies show that the type of embodied virtual body can affect high-order sensations such as appropriateness, unpleasantness, and erogeneity, associated with the touched body part and the toucher’s social identity. We conclude that perspective plays a key role in the resonance with others' somatosensation, and full-BO over virtual avatars allows investigation of complex aspects of pain and touch perception which would not be possible in reality.