Embodiment in a Child-Like Talking Virtual Body Influences Object Size Perception, Self-Identification, and Subsequent Real Speaking

People’s mental representations of their own body are malleable and continuously updated through sensory cues. Altering one’s body-representation can lead to changes in object perception and implicit attitudes. Virtual reality has been used to embody adults in the body of a 4-year-old child or a scaled-down adult body. Child embodiment was found to cause an overestimation of object sizes, approximately double that during adult embodiment, and identification of the self with child-like attributes. Here we tested the contribution of auditory cues related to one’s own voice to these visually-driven effects. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, visual and auditory feedback on one’s own body were varied across conditions, which included embodiment in a child or scaled-down adult body, and real (undistorted) or child-like voice feedback. The results replicated, in an older population, previous findings regarding size estimations and implicit attitudes. Further, although auditory cues were not found to enhance these effects, we show that the strength of the embodiment illusion depends on the child-like voice feedback being congruent or incongruent with the age of the virtual body. Results also showed the positive emotional impact of the illusion of owning a child’s body, opening up possibilities for health applications

Action Sounds Informing Own Body Perception Influence Gender Identity and Social Cognition

Sensory information can temporarily affect mental body representations. For example, in Virtual Reality (VR), visually swapping into a body with another sex can temporarily alter perceived gender identity. Outside of VR, real-time auditory changes to walkers’ footstep sounds can affect perceived body weight and masculinity/femininity. Here, we investigate whether altered footstep sounds also impact gender identity and relation to gender groups. In two experiments, cisgender participants (26 females, 26 males) walked with headphones which played altered versions of their own footstep sounds that sounded more typically male or female. Baseline and post-intervention measures quantified gender identity [Implicit Association Test (IAT)], relation to gender groups [Inclusion of the Other-in-the-Self (IOS)], and perceived masculinity/femininity. Results show that females felt more feminine and closer to the group of women (IOS) directly after walking with feminine sounding footsteps. Similarly, males felt more feminine after walking with feminine sounding footsteps and associated themselves relatively stronger with “female” (IAT). The findings suggest that gender identity is temporarily malleable through auditory-induced own body illusions. Furthermore, they provide evidence for a connection between body perception and an abstract representation of the Self, supporting the theory that bodily illusions affect social cognition through changes in the self-concept

Author Correction: Embodiment in a Child-Like Talking Virtual Body Influences Object Size Perception, Self-Identification, and Subsequent Real Speaking

Correction to: Scientific Reports https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-09497-3, published online 29 August 201

Musically Informed Sonification for Chronic Pain Rehabilitation: Facilitating Progress & Avoiding Over-doing

In self-directed chronic pain physical rehabilitation it is important that the individual can progress as physical capabilities and confidence grow. However, people with chronic pain often struggle to pass what they have identified as safe boundaries. At the same time, over-activity due to the desire to progress fast or function more normally, may lead to setbacks. We investigate how musically-informed movement sonification can be used as an implicit mechanism to both avoid overdoing and facilitate progress during stretching exercises. We sonify an end target-point in a stretch exercise, using a stable sound (i.e., where the sonification is musically resolved) to encourage movements ending and an unstable sound (i.e., musically unresolved) to encourage continuation. Results on healthy participants show that instability leads to progression further beyond the target-point while stability leads to a smoother stop beyond this point. We conclude discussing how these findings should generalize to the CP population

As light as your footsteps: altering walking sounds to change perceived body weight, emotional state and gait

An ever more sedentary lifestyle is a serious problem in our society. Enhancing people’s exercise adherence through technology remains an important research challenge. We propose a novel approach for a system supporting walking that draws from basic findings in neuroscience research. Our shoe-based prototype senses a person’s footsteps and alters in real-time the frequency spectra of the sound they produce while walking. The resulting sounds are consistent with those produced by either a lighter or heavier body. Our user study showed that modified walking sounds change one’s own perceived body weight and lead to a related gait pattern. In particular, augmenting the high frequencies of the sound leads to the perception of having a thinner body and enhances the motivation for physical activity inducing a more dynamic swing and a shorter heel strike. We here discuss the opportunities and the questions our findings open

Author Correction: Contingent sounds change the mental representation of one’s finger length

Correction to: Scientific Reports https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-05870-4, published online 18 July 201

SoniBand: Understanding the Effects of Metaphorical Movement Sonifications on Body Perception and Physical Activity

Negative body perceptions are a major predictor of physical inactivity, a serious health concern. Sensory feedback can be used to alter such body perceptions; movement sonification, in particular, has been suggested to affect body perception and levels of physical activity (PA) in inactive people. We investigated how metaphorical sounds impact body perception and PA. We report two qualitative studies centered on performing different strengthening/flexibility exercises using SoniBand, a wearable that augments movement through different sounds. The first study involved physically active participants and served to obtain a nuanced understanding of the sonifications’ impact. The second, in the home of physically inactive participants, served to identify which effects could support PA adherence. Our findings show that movement sonification based on metaphors led to changes in body perception (e.g., feeling strong) and PA (e.g., repetitions) in both populations, but effects could differ according to the existing PA-level. We discuss principles for metaphor-based sonification design to foster PA

Affective Multimodal Displays: Acoustic Spectra Modulates Perception of Auditory-Tactile Signals

Presented at the 14th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2008) on June 24-27, 2008 in Paris, France.Emotional events may interrupt ongoing cognitive processes and automatically grab attention, modulating the subsequent perceptual processes. Hence, emotional eliciting stimuli might effectively be used in warning applications, where a fast and accurate response from users is required. In addition, conveying information through an optimum multisensory combination can lead to a further enhancement of user responses. In the present study we investigated the emotional response to sounds differing in their acoustic spectra, and their influence on speeded detection of auditory-somatosensory stimuli. Higher sound frequencies resulted in an increase in emotional arousal. We suggest that emotional processes might be responsible for the different auditory-somatosensory integration patterns observed for low and high frequency sounds. The presented results might have important implications for the design of auditory and multisensory warning interfaces

Effects of pitch and musical sounds on body-representations when moving with sound

The effects of music on bodily movement and feelings, such as when people are dancing or engaged in physical activity, are well-documented—people may move in response to the sound cues, feel powerful, less tired. How sounds and bodily movements relate to create such effects? Here we deconstruct the problem and investigate how different auditory features affect people’s body-representation and feelings even when paired with the same movement. In three experiments, participants executed a simple arm raise synchronised with changing pitch in simple tones (Experiment 1), rich musical sounds (Experiment 2) and within different frequency ranges (Experiment 3), while we recorded indirect and direct measures on their movement, body-representations and feelings. Changes in pitch influenced people’s general emotional state as well as the various bodily dimensions investigated—movement, proprioceptive awareness and feelings about one’s body and movement. Adding harmonic content amplified the differences between ascending and descending sounds, while shifting the absolute frequency range had a general effect on movement amplitude, bodily feelings and emotional state. These results provide new insights in the role of auditory and musical features in dance and exercise, and have implications for the design of sound-based applications supporting movement expression, physical activity, or rehabilitation