Audio-visual sensory deprivation degrades visuo-tactile peri-personal space.

Self-perception is scaffolded upon the integration of multisensory cues on the body, the space surrounding the body (i.e., the peri-personal space; PPS), and from within the body. We asked whether reducing information available from external space would change: PPS, interoceptive accuracy, and self-experience. Twenty participants were exposed to 15 min of audio-visual deprivation and performed: (i) a visuo-tactile interaction task measuring their PPS; (ii) a heartbeat perception task measuring interoceptive accuracy; and (iii) a series of questionnaires related to self-perception and mental illness. These tasks were carried out in two conditions: while exposed to a standard sensory environment and under a condition of audio-visual deprivation. Results suggest that while PPS becomes ill defined after audio-visual deprivation, interoceptive accuracy is unaltered at a group-level, with some participants improving and some worsening in interoceptive accuracy. Interestingly, correlational individual differences analyses revealed that changes in PPS after audio-visual deprivation were related to interoceptive accuracy and self-reports of "unusual experiences" on an individual subject basis. Taken together, the findings argue for a relationship between the malleability of PPS, interoceptive accuracy, and an inclination toward aberrant ideation often associated with mental illness.

The Architectonic Experience of Body and Space in Augmented Interiors.

The environment shapes our experience of space in constant interaction with the body. Architectonic interiors amplify the perception of space through the bodily senses; an effect also known as embodiment. The interaction of the bodily senses with the space surrounding the body can be tested experimentally through the manipulation of multisensory stimulation and measured via a range of behaviors related to bodily self-consciousness. Many studies have used Virtual Reality to show that visuotactile conflicts mediated via a virtual body or avatar can disrupt the unified subjective experience of the body and self. In the full-body illusion paradigm, participants feel as if the avatar was their body (ownership, self-identification) and they shift their center of awareness toward the position of the avatar (self-location). However, the influence of non-bodily spatial cues around the body on embodiment remains unclear, and data about the impact of architectonic space on human perception and self-conscious states are sparse. We placed participants into a Virtual Reality arena, where large and narrow virtual interiors were displayed with and without an avatar. We then applied synchronous or asynchronous visuotactile strokes to the back of the participants and avatar, or, to the front wall of the void interiors. During conditions of illusory self-identification with the avatar, participants reported sensations of containment, drift, and touch with the architectonic environment. The absence of the avatar suppressed such feelings, yet, in the large space, we found an effect of continuity between the physical and the virtual interior depending on the full-body illusion. We discuss subjective feelings evoked by architecture and compare the full-body illusion in augmented interiors to architectonic embodiment. A relevant outcome of this study is the potential to dissociate the egocentric, first-person view from the physical point of view through augmented architectonic space.

"Seeing" and "feeling" architecture: how bodily self-consciousness alters architectonic experience and affects the perception of interiors.

Over the centuries architectural theory evolved several notions of embodiment, proposing in the nineteenth and twentieth century that architectonic experience is related to physiological responses of the observer. Recent advances in the cognitive neuroscience of embodiment (or bodily self-consciousness) enable empirical studies of architectonic embodiment. Here, we investigated how architecture modulates bodily self-consciousness by adapting a video-based virtual reality (VR) setup previously used to investigate visuo-tactile mechanisms of bodily self-consciousness. While standing in two different interiors, participants were filmed from behind and watched their own virtual body online on a head-mounted display (HMD). Visuo-tactile strokes were applied in synchronous or asynchronous mode to the participants and their virtual body. Two interiors were simulated in the laboratory by placing the sidewalls either far or near from the participants, generating a large and narrow room. We tested if bodily self-consciousness was differently modulated when participants were exposed to both rooms and whether these changes depend on visuo-tactile stimulation. We measured illusory touch, self-identification, and performed length estimations. Our data show that synchronous stroking of the physical and the virtual body induces illusory touch and self-identification with the virtual body, independent of room-size. Moreover, in the narrow room we observed weak feelings of illusory touch with the sidewalls and of approaching walls. These subjective changes were complemented by a stroking-dependent modulation of length estimation only in the narrow room with participants judging the room-size more accurately during conditions of illusory self-identification. We discuss our findings and previous notions of architectonic embodiment in the context of the cognitive neuroscience of bodily self-consciousness and propose an empirical framework grounded in architecture, cognitive neuroscience, and VR.

The riddle of style changes in the visual arts after interference with the right brain.

We here analyze the paintings and films of several visual artists, who suffered from a well-defined neuropsychological deficit, visuo-spatial hemineglect, following vascular stroke to the right brain. In our analysis we focus in particular on the oeuvre of Lovis Corinth and Luchino Visconti as both major artists continued to be highly productive over many years after their right brain damage. We analyzed their post-stroke paintings and films, indicate several aspects that differ from their pre-stroke work (omissions, use of color, perseveration, deformation), and propose-although both artists come from different times, countries, genres, and styles-that their post-stroke oeuvre reveals important similarities in style. We argue that these changes may be associated with visuo-spatial hemineglect and the right brain. We discuss future avenues of how the neuropsychological investigation of visual artists with and without neglect may allow us to investigate the relationship between brain and art.