Have you ever felt a force field around your body?
Our brains are aware not just of our bodies but also the immediate space around us. Now, a twist on the classic rubber hand illusion can make people “feel” this space – a sensation they liken to perceiving a Force Field.
Neuroscientists have known for decades that our brains contain representations of the area surrounding us, known as peripersonal space. This allows us to grasp objects within our reach and helps to protect us.
Imagine you are walking through the woods talking to a companion, when a low-hanging branch suddenly appears in your peripheral vision. You’ll instinctively duck to avoid it: your sense of peripersonal space has prevented you from banging your head.
Hard neuroscientific evidence on the phenomenon appeared in the late 1990s in animal studies. Michael Graziano of Princeton University, New Jersey, and his colleagues recorded the electrical activity of neurons in the parietal and frontal lobes of the brains of monkeys, finding that some neurons fired not only when an object touched part of the body, but also when the object came near it.
Recommended: What Is Aura
When the researchers directly stimulated such neurons, they found that the monkeys would reflexively move their heads and limbs as if defending themselves – for example, grimacing and closing their eyes, turning their heads to one side and putting up their arms in a protective posture.
Although no one has repeated the experiments in humans, there is evidence that certain regions of our brain specifically deal with peripersonal space.
For instance, some people who suffer strokes in the right posterior parietal lobe cannot sense peripersonal stimuli on the left side of their bodies, but can sense things that are further away, outside the peripersonal space on that side.
Sensory Trick
At least, that’s the theory. Now, Guterstam and his colleagues have tricked humans into actually feeling our peripersonal space.
To do so, they turned to the well-known rubber hand illusion. In the standard form of this illusion, the experimenter uses a paintbrush to stroke a volunteer’s hand (which is hidden from view) and an adjacent, visible rubber hand.
The stroking is done simultaneously at the same speed and place on both the real and rubber hand. Within minutes, most people report feeling the touch of the brushstrokes on the rubber hand as if it belonged to them.
Researchers noticed that the illusion didn’t work if the rubber hand was too far away from the real hand.
In the new study, which involved 101 adults, the researchers made one important change to the experiment. They never brushed the rubber hand directly. Instead, they moved the brush above the rubber hand, again at the same time as brushstrokes that touched the real hand.
Recommended: 5 Easy Steps to Start Seeing The Aura
This meant the volunteer felt touch on their real hand but watched the brush move in mid-air, say, about 10 centimetres above the rubber hand.
Most volunteers reported feeling a Magnetic Force or Force Field between the paintbrush and the rubber hand below – as if the brush was encountering an invisible barrier.“We can elicit this bizarre sensation of there actually being something in mid-air between the brush and the rubber hand,” says Guterstam. The volunteers also felt a sense of ownership of the rubber hand.
The team found that the illusion disappears when the brushstrokes are more than about 30-40 centimetres above the rubber hand. This distance seems to be the limit of the peripersonal space of any given body part.
Recommended: The Seven Layers Of The Aura
The illusion of the Force Field also disappears if there is an opaque metal barrier between the rubber hand and the brush. Because the barrier makes it impossible for the hand to reach up and grasp anything, or for anything to hit the hand, the space above is now not peripersonal space, Guterstam speculates.
“This is a wonderful study,” says Graziano. “For decades, the neuroscience of the parietal and frontal lobes has filled in our knowledge of the special margin of safety, or buffer zone, around the body. Now we have a clever way to get at the phenomenon through an illusion that is easy to implement in the lab.”
The fun part about this experiment is that you can do it at home. Try it out and let us know that you think about it in the comments below.
Originally written by Anil Ananthaswamy and published on New Scientist
The following time I learn a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my option to learn, however I actually thought youd have one thing attention-grabbing to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about one thing that you possibly can repair for those who werent too busy in search of attention.
파워 오브 토르 메가웨이즈
사실, 서산의 새로운 마차로 남북의 거리가 크게 단축되었습니다.
Of course, what a magnificent site and informative posts, I surely will bookmark your blog.All the Best!
jimbaslot link.
Enjoyed looking at this, very good stuff, thankyou.
It is appropriate time to make some plans for the future and it’s time to be happy. I have read this post and if I could I wish to suggest you few interesting things or suggestions. Perhaps you could write next articles referring to this article. I want to read more things about it!
I have recently started a site, the information you provide on this site has helped me tremendously. Thanks for all of your time & work.
Greetings! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a team of volunteers and starting a new project in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us beneficial information to work on. You have done a outstanding job!
I will right away grab your rss feed as I can not in finding your email subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Please allow me recognize in order that I may just subscribe. Thanks.
Please let me know if you’re looking for a article author for your weblog. You have some really good articles and I think I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d love to write some articles for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please send me an e-mail if interested. Kudos!
CYCO Nozzle With the development of more than 20 years, it has become one of the biggest Spray Nozzle Manufacturer in ASIA.
Lovely just what I was searching for.Thanks to the author for taking his clock time on this one.
I do consider all of the ideas you’ve presented in your post. They are really convincing and will certainly work. Still, the posts are too quick for newbies. Could you please lengthen them a bit from subsequent time? Thanks for the post.
Hi, just required you to know I he added your site to my Google bookmarks due to your layout. But seriously, I believe your internet site has 1 in the freshest theme I??ve came across. It extremely helps make reading your blog significantly easier.
I appreciate, cause I discovered exactly what I used to be having a look for. You’ve ended my four day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a great day. Bye
I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good. I don’t know who you are but certainly you’re going to a famous blogger if you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!
파라오 슬롯
물주머니가 땅에 떨어지자 물주머니의 입에서는 투명하고 맑은 달콤한 샘물이 새어 나왔다.
Awesome blog! Do you have any hints for aspiring writers? I’m planning to start my own website soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you advise starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many options out there that I’m completely overwhelmed .. Any tips? Bless you!
login link jimbaslot.
I’m just commenting to make you understand what a cool experience our girl obtained using the blog. She even learned several details, not to mention what it is like to possess a wonderful helping style to get a number of people without difficulty grasp a variety of advanced subject areas. You really surpassed readers’ desires. I appreciate you for offering these interesting, dependable, edifying and as well as fun thoughts on that topic to Jane.
판다스 포춘
철구를 부수고 나면 찾을 곳이 없지만, 그것을 얻는 데는 많은 노력이 필요하지 않습니다.
Having read this I thought it was very informative. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to put this article together. I once again find myself spending way to much time both reading and commenting. But so what, it was still worth it!
I am impressed with this website , rattling I am a big fan .
I truly appreciate this post. I have been looking all over for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You’ve made my day! Thanks again!
Excellent beat ! I would like to apprentice while you amend your website, how can i subscribe for a blog site? The account helped me a acceptable deal. I had been a little bit acquainted of this your broadcast offered bright clear idea
It is the best time to make some plans for the future and it’s time to be happy. I’ve read this post and if I could I wish to suggest you some interesting things or advice. Maybe you could write next articles referring to this article. I wish to read more things about it!
hey there and thanks for your info – I’ve certainly picked up something new from right here. I did then again experience some technical issues the usage of this site, since I skilled to reload the website many instances previous to I may get it to load correctly. I were puzzling over if your hosting is OK? Not that I’m complaining, however slow loading cases occasions will very frequently affect your placement in google and can damage your high quality rating if ads and ***********|advertising|advertising|advertising and *********** with Adwords. Anyway I am adding this RSS to my email and could glance out for much more of your respective exciting content. Make sure you update this again soon..
Hey there are using WordPress for your site platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and set up my own. Do you require any html coding knowledge to make your own blog? Any help would be really appreciated!
This web site is really a walk-through for all of the info you wanted about this and didn’t know who to ask. Glimpse here, and you’ll definitely discover it.
Hi! I’ve been reading your blog for a long time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Atascocita Texas! Just wanted to tell you keep up the fantastic work!