This chapter explores the fragility of our brain's bodily awareness and how optical illusions, damage, disease, and mental illness can impact our sense of body ownership and control. It discusses the brain's understanding of our bodies, the rubber hand experiment, and conditions like Phantom Limb Syndrome and anorexia. It also examines treatments for distorted body perception, such as interreceptive training and manipulating external signals.
From phantom limbs to Alice in Wonderland syndrome — why does the brain sometimes mess up its awareness and understanding of the body it belongs to?
Neuroscientist and author of Body Am I, Moheb Costandi explains.