Temperament and psychopathological syndromes specific susceptibility for rubber hand illusion

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore individual capacity for self-integration, susceptibility to the Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI) and the role of temperament factors in the emergence of body schema and body image dissociation. The RHI factors, proprioceptive drift, body ownership and body disownership were assessed in 48 university students. Personality and psychiatric vulnerability were measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-R) and the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R). Our study pointed to the fact that the extent of behaviourally defined proprioceptive drift was associated with temperament factors, especially with Novelty Seeking and Harm Avoidance. Further, the ownership was associated with Symptom Checklist factors, especially with elevated Interpersonal Sensitivity and vulnerability to Schizotypy and Paranoid Ideation and elevated disownership score was found in the case of elevated Schizotypy, including a depersonalisation feeling when the RHI was induced. The RHI may be considered as a conflicting situation, in which a way to cope with incongruent multimodal, visual, haptic and proprioceptive stimulation provides an opportunity to test body integration and embodiment processes in healthy participants and patients without disadvantageous outcomes. The results support and replenish the two opposite processing models of the RHI with a third, temperament-based procedural mechanism.

Keywords: Body schema; Interpersonal sensitivity; Multimodal integration; Peripersonal space; Schizotypy; Self-integration.