Dataset Information

Action effect consistency and body ownership in the avatar-Simon task.

ABSTRACT: Putting oneself in the shoes of a digital alter ego becomes an increasingly relevant part of our everyday experience. In modern day psychology, these interactions can be examined within the frameworks of visual perspective taking and body ownership. Both target similar questions: What does it take, to become one with the avatar? When do we show the same behavior and make the same experiences, as if we were in its place? In this study, we want to address the role of action effect consistency for these concepts. We manipulated the participants' sense of agency over a task-irrelevant avatar in a Simon task by providing either corresponding or random action effects. These effects could be either embodied and therefore linked to the avatar (Experiment 1) or independent of it (Experiment 2). We used stimulus-response compatibility effects from the avatar's point of view as a measure for spontaneous visual perspective taking and a questionnaire to measure the perceived body ownership of the avatar. The results showed that corresponding action effects lead to increased spontaneous perspective taking of the avatar, regardless of whether the effect was linked to the avatar or not. Though the avatar compatibility effects were overall more pronounced in the embodied action effect condition. However, significant differences in perceived body ownership were only observed if the effects were linked to the avatar. The results might prove useful to further our understanding of subjective and objective measurements of interactions with avatars.

SUBMITTER: Boffel C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6688792 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Action effect consistency and body ownership in the avatar-Simon task.

Böffel Christian C Müsseler Jochen J

PloS one 20190809 8

Putting oneself in the shoes of a digital alter ego becomes an increasingly relevant part of our everyday experience. In modern day psychology, these interactions can be examined within the frameworks of visual perspective taking and body ownership. Both target similar questions: What does it take, to become one with the avatar? When do we show the same behavior and make the same experiences, as if we were in its place? In this study, we want to address the role of action effect consistency for ...[more]

PMID: 31398233

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Project description:Introduction The ability to resolve interference declines with age and is attributed to neurodegeneration and reduced cognitive function and mental alertness in older adults. Our previous study revealed that task-irrelevant but environmentally meaningful sounds improve performance on the modified Simon task in older adults. However, little is known about neural correlates of this sound facilitation effect. Methods Twenty right-handed older adults [mean age = 72 (SD = 4), 11 female] participated in the fMRI study. They performed the modified Simon task in which the arrows were presented either in the locations matching the arrow direction (congruent trials) or in the locations mismatching the arrow direction (incongruent trials). A total of 50% of all trials were accompanied by task-irrelevant but environmentally meaningful sounds. Results Participants were faster on the trials with concurrent sounds, independently of whether trials were congruent or incongruent. The sound effect was associated with activation in the distributed network of auditory, posterior parietal, frontal, and limbic brain regions. The magnitude of the behavioral facilitation effect due to sound was associated with the changes in activation of the bilateral auditory cortex, cuneal cortex, and occipital fusiform gyrus, precuneus, left superior parietal lobule (SPL) for No Sound vs. Sound trials. These changes were associated with the corresponding changes in reaction time (RT). Older adults with a recent history of falls showed greater activation in the left SPL than those without falls history. Conclusion Our findings are consistent with the dedifferentiation hypothesis of cognitive aging. The facilitatory effect of sound could be achieved through recruitment of excessive neural resources, which allows older adults to increase attention and mental alertness during task performance. Considering that the SPL is critical for integration of multisensory information, individuals with slower task responses and those with a history of falls may need to recruit this region more actively than individuals with faster responses and those without a fall history to overcome increased difficulty with interference resolution. Future studies should examine the relationship among activation in the SPL, the effect of sound, and falls history in the individuals who are at heightened risk of falls.

Dataset Information

Action effect consistency and body ownership in the avatar-Simon task.

Publications

Action effect consistency and body ownership in the avatar-Simon task.

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