Abstract
Knowledge of one’s own body size is a crucial facet of body representation, both for acting on the environment and perhaps also for constraining body ownership. However, representations of body size may be somewhat plastic, particularly to allow for physical growth in childhood. Here we report a developmental investigation into the role of hand size in body representation (the sense of body ownership, perception of hand position, and perception of own-hand size). Using the rubber hand illusion paradigm, this study used different fake hand sizes (60%, 80%, 100%, 120% or 140% of typical size) in three age groups (6- to 7-year-olds, 12- to 13-year-olds, and adults; N = 229). We found no evidence that hand size constrains ownership or position: participants embodied hands which were both larger and smaller than their own, and indeed judged their own hands to have changed size following the illusion. Children and adolescents embodied the fake hands more than adults, with a greater tendency to feel their own hand had changed size. Adolescents were particularly sensitive to multisensory information. In sum, we found substantial plasticity in the representation of own-body size, with partial support for the hypothesis that children have looser representations than adults.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 19281 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Scientific Reports |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 11 Nov 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This project received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC ES/P008798/1 to DC), the European Research Council (ERC 241242 to AJB), and the Swedish Research Council (VR-PG 2017-01504 to JMG). We thank the children and adults participating in this study, and the local primary schools for collaboration.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General