Using a virtual reality headset and simple deception, neuroscientists have found a way to create the sensation of personal invisibility.
In a study from Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, a team of neuroscientists now reports a perceptual illusion of having an invisible body, and show that the feeling of invisibility changes our physical stress response in challenging social situations.
The researchers described a perceptual illusion of having an invisible body. The experiment involved the participant standing up and wearing a set of head-mounted displays.
The participant was then asked to look down at her body, but instead of her real body she sees empty space.
To evoke the feeling of having an invisible body, the scientist touched the participant's body in various locations with a large paintbrush while, with another paintbrush held in the other hand, exactly imitating the movements in mid-air in full view of the participant.
Arvid Guterstam said that heart rate and self-reported stress level of people during the "performance" was lower when they immediately prior had experienced the invisible body illusion compared to when they experienced having a physical body.
The researchers hope that the results of the study would be of value to future clinical research, for example in the development of new therapies for social anxiety disorder.
The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports.
