Looking for myself: interactions between multisensory integration and recognition of one's own face
Lead Research Organisation:
Royal Holloway University of London
Department Name: Psychology
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Manos Tsakiris (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Apps M
(2013)
Plasticity in Unimodal and Multimodal Brain Areas Reflects Multisensory Changes in Self-Face Identification
in Cerebral Cortex
Cardini F
(2013)
It feels like it's me: interpersonal multisensory stimulation enhances visual remapping of touch from other to self.
in Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance
Filippetti ML
(2018)
Just Before I Recognize Myself: The Role of Featural and Multisensory Cues Leading up to Explicit Mirror Self-Recognition.
in Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies
Maister L
(2013)
I feel your fear: shared touch between faces facilitates recognition of fearful facial expressions.
in Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
Maister L
(2013)
Mirror-touch synaesthesia changes representations of self-identity.
in Neuropsychologia
Tajadura-Jiménez A
(2012)
The person in the mirror: using the enfacement illusion to investigate the experiential structure of self-identification.
in Consciousness and cognition
Tajadura-Jiménez A
(2014)
Balancing the "inner" and the "outer" self: interoceptive sensitivity modulates self-other boundaries.
in Journal of experimental psychology. General
Tajadura-Jiménez A
(2013)
Active and passive-touch during interpersonal multisensory stimulation change self-other boundaries.
in Consciousness and cognition
Tajadura-Jiménez A
(2012)
The other in me: interpersonal multisensory stimulation changes the mental representation of the self.
in PloS one
Tsakiris M
(2011)
Just a heartbeat away from one's body: interoceptive sensitivity predicts malleability of body-representations
in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
| Description | Our face is our most distinctive physical feature, and one of the key ways by which we become known as individuals, both to ourselves and to others. How do we construct a mental representation of our facial identity and how malleable is this representation? We addressed this question by investigating, for the first time, the contribution of multisensory signals for self-face recognition in healthy adult volunteers. In a series of experiments, participants looked an unfamiliar face being touched synchronously with their own face, as if they were looking in the mirror. We developed novel explicit and implicit self-recognition measures and novel ways of studying the mental representation of one's identity. The combination of felt touch on one's face and seen touch on someone else's face, resulted in changes in the mental representation of one's face. Participants accepted as self-stimuli faces that contained a significantly higher percentage of the other's face. Importantly, Sharing multisensory experiences with others can change not only the mental representation of one's identity, but also the perceived similarity of others relative to one's self. These findings show for the first time how multisensory integration provides a plausible mechanism for constructing a mental representation of the self, and for the subsequent assimilation of changes and updating of self-representations in our interactions with others. |
| Exploitation Route | A significant socio-economical impact comes from the studies and related projects evaluating how clinical disorders of body-image and how body-alterations may or may not be incorporated in one's mental self-image, that arose from this research. The relationship between body-appearance and selfhood is central to several medical and social practises, as many citizens undergo procedures that change their appearance (e.g. cosmetic procedures), and many more have appearance-related concerns. During the life-time of the project we built connections with the UK Facial Transplant Team and started a collaboration that resulted in a successful grant application that will investigate changes in self-face mental representations in individuals who undergo reconstructive surgery. As part of these studies, our experimental manipulation of online current multisensory input will be piloted as a means of accelerating rehabilitation of the sensorymotor processes following operation as well as for the evaluation of mental assimilation of the induced changes in physical appearance. The wider impact on general audiences outside scientific sectors came through participation in public events and in events with potential users in medical contexts. Public events have included showcasing our paradigms and results in events and installations (e.g. 3 month-installation at the London Science Museum "Who Am I?" Gallery). The research on this project has been featured in a series of journals and magazines such as New Scientist, Times, Scientific American, as well as National and International Radio Programmes. - Application of our novel methodological approach to the malleability of the sense of personal identity in response to multisensory stimulation in basic and clinical research in developmental and clinical psychology, cognitive neurosciences and neuropsychiatry. It is expected that the impact on clinical cohorts will be fully realized when new therapies relying on alterations of body-representations, that incorporate the outputs of the project, become available to these groups. This would result in a wider socio-economical impact on medical and social practises. Projects adopting some of the methods and experimental paradigms used in this award are now being implemented in the study of Body Dysmorphic Disorder and in Anorexia . -Impact on research and industry on the sense of self in virtual reality (VR) environments and other immersive technologies (e.g. Second Life), where people project a sense of personal identity onto the appearance and body of the avatar. The project has advanced our understanding of the cognitive processes involved in representing one's real or virtual appearance and its relation to personal identity. This knowledge can be translated in the design of VR environments for both scientific and entrepreneurial purposes. |
| Sectors | Education,Healthcare |
| Description | Science Museum Residency, London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In 2011, my lab was selected and hosted at the "Who Am I?" Gallery of the Science Museum, London (March to June, 2011). We showcased our research with the active involvement of over 1,000 visitors who participated in our experiments. This activity has provided a unique opportunity to liaise with members of the public and disseminate the research projects that I have developed at RHUL, and to produce new empirical studies (Tajadura-Jimenez et al., 2012). This year, my lab has been selected for a second time, and we will be hosted for 3 months at the "Who Am I?" Gallery (Spring, 2013) to present our latest research on the sense of self. These Third Stream Activities in one of the most important Science museums in the world provided me with a unique platform for active public engagement with science and for promoting this research project that was funded by ESRC. The large scale public and media presentations ,may have broad societal impacts that are not straightforward to register. Identifiable groups on whom the research has had an impact include philosophers and social scientists, artists (e.g. Kate Genevieve, see http://pulse-project.org/node/466 at the ASSC conference in Brighton), the visitors of the Who Am I Gallery ? at the Science Museum and the BNA Festival of Neuroscience, clinical practitioners (see new collaborations on mental health issues). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011,2013 |
| URL | http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us/new_research_folder/livescience.aspx |