Scientists show that virtual reality illusions can physically cool down your real body
By tricking the brain into seeing a left hand operating on the right side of the body in virtual reality, researchers discovered they could trigger a physical drop in skin temperature in a person's actual left hand.
A recent study published in Cortex reveals that virtual reality illusions can cause a person's physical body to cool down. Researchers discovered that when the brain's internal model of the body is disrupted by a visual illusion, it triggers measurable physiological changes in the body's actual limbs. By tricking the brain into believing that the left hand was controlling a stick on the right side of the body, participants' actual left hands dropped in temperature.
The study involved twenty-six right-handed adults who wore a virtual reality headset and used a controller in their right hand. They completed the task twice, once with a standard right hand appearing on the virtual screen and once with a left hand appearing. Tricking the brain into seeing the left hand on the right side of the body resulted in a lower skin temperature for the actual left hand, while the temperature of the left hand increased in the congruent condition.
The researchers believe this demonstrates that the brain actively tries to resolve mismatches between visual and physical information. The effect occurred without any conscious shift in how participants perceived their bodies. The study has limitations, including a small sample size and the inability to measure the temperature of the moving right hand.
However, the findings suggest that virtual reality illusions may have the potential for developing virtual therapies for neurological conditions by targeting neural circuits responsible for regulating body temperature during sensory conflicts.
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