Non-technical summary The sense of body ownership tells us that our body belongs to us, and other bodies do not. That our body belongs to us is fundamental to self-awareness. It is known that synchronous touch and vision can be used to induce an illusion of ownership over an artificial rubber hand. Like the skin receptors used for touch, sensory receptors in the muscles only provide information about events occurring to the body. Whether muscle receptors contribute to our sense of body ownership is not known. This study developed a technique to induce an illusion of ownership over a plastic finger using movement, which excites muscle receptors. This sense of ownership still occurred when the contribution of skin and joint receptors was removed using local anaesthetic. The results clearly show that muscle receptors can contribute to the sense of body ownership.
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