New paper: A systematic review and meta-analysis (k = 22) found no evidence that the rubber hand illusion modulates pain in healthy participants (Hedges’ g = 0.036). These findings challenge claims that body ownership illusions attenuate pain. Thread by lead author @saracoppi.bsky.social below.

Sara Coppi@saracoppi.bsky.social · last mo.

🧵1/10 New paper out! In collaboration with @brainself.bsky.social and Karin Jensen! We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed studies testing whether the Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI), the classic body ownership illusion, reduces pain in healthy participants. Short answer: the evidence says no.

Congratulations Dr. Sara Coppi (@saracoppi.bsky.social) on the excellent defense of your PhD thesis 'The Relationship between Nociception, Pain, and Body Ownership'!

Looking forward to giving a short talk today at ~16:20 at #BRNET2026 in Palazzo Bo, Padova! I'll discuss the influence of body ownership on visuonociceptive interactions in peripersonal space and what it can tell us about how we process potential threats. See you! 🧠 #BodyOwnership #PeripersonalSpace

New study! SDT used to dissociate body ownership sensitivity from perceptual bias in the rubber hand illusion with partial visual occlusion. Disrupting visually-driven tactile predictions shifts perceptual bias but not visuotactile sensitivity. See below.

Renzo Lanfranco@renzolanfranco.bsky.social · 4mo ago

What makes a body feel like our own? The sense of body ownership is a core aspect of self-awareness, and it depends on the integration of multiple sensory signals. What role do visual predictions play in body ownership? Check out our new paper in Royal Society Open Science: doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

Congratulations to Dr. Yatong Wen on being awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship in record-tough competition! Exciting new experiments on the way! news.ki.se/eight-ki-res...

Eight KI researchers receive Marie Skłodowska-Curie grants in record competition

Eight young researchers at Karolinska Institutet have been awarded postdoctoral grants within the EU's Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA). This means strengthened opportunities to conduct research ...

news.ki.se

New results! Faster parietal alpha frequency tightens, and slower alpha widens, the temporal window for vision–touch integration for the sense of one’s own body. Causal and computational evidence. Nature Communications news.ki.se/how-brain-wa...

How brain waves shape our sense of self

A new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in Nature Communications, reveals how rhythmic brain waves known as alpha oscillations help us distinguish between our own body and the external world...

news.ki.se

Mariano D'Angelo @DAngeloMariano presents a new study (in press) at this year's Karolinska Department of Neuroscience retreat.

Brain, Body & Self lab celebrating 2025 with a traditional Swedish Christmas smorgasbord (Julbord) at Hasselbacken, Stockholm

Metacognitive modeling of bodily self-awareness, made easy. Read The Conversation piece by @renzolanfranco.bsky.social about our new PNAS study here. theconversation.com/why-our-phys...

Why our physical bodies may be a core part of conscious experience – new research

The brain’s sense of “this is my body” is tightly bound to conscious awareness – far more than many theories assume.

theconversation.com

Body ownership is not constructed unconsciously and then brought to awareness—it emerges directly in consciousness. A fundamental insight for understanding the bodily self, with clear implications for theories of consciousness. See PNAS article and thread below.

Renzo Lanfranco@renzolanfranco.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Happy to share our new and groundbreaking study on the relationship between conscious awareness and the sense of bodily self! With @brainself.bsky.social at @ki.se and out today in PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Check out the symposium “Recent Developments in Bodily Self-awareness Research” hosted by @coppi_sara at ICON 2025 in Porto tomorrow, Friday, at 1:30PM! Speakers: Sara Coppi, Heather Iriye, Renzo Lanfranco and Mariano D'Angelo.

New study shows that reducing body ownership through a perceptual illusion leads to fragmentation in self-concept. This link between the bodily and conceptual self may shed light on dissociative experiences and mental health. www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Bodily disownership is associated with self-concept fragmentation

Behavioral neuroscience; Sensory neuroscience; Cognitive neuroscience

cell.com

In our new iScience study led by Sara Coppi, we show that during the rubber hand illusion, pain is mislocalized toward the rubber hand. This nociceptive drift reveals how pain, like other senses, is integrated into the bodily self. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40546968/

What is the relationship between conscious awareness and unconscious processing in the multisensory perception of our own bodies? In our new preprint, with @renzolanfranco.bsky.social as the lead author, we investigated this question. Link to the preprint and thread below

Renzo Lanfranco@renzolanfranco.bsky.social · 2y ago

How does the perception of our bodily self arise in our experience, and to what extent do we process body ownership information unconsciously? In a new study (preprint), we found body ownership information processing cannot occur without awareness. 0/14👇 doi.org/10.31234/osf...

We are recruiting a new postdoc to the Brain, Body, and Self Lab at Karolinska Institutet. Check out the link for more information. ki.varbi.com/what:job/job...

Postdoctoral studies in Cognitive Neuroscience (scholarship)

Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research?  The Department of Neuroscience includes several research groups working on different aspects of nervous system function, both under normal

ki.varbi.com

We are recruiting a PhD student at the Brain, Body, and Self Lab, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet. Learn more and apply here: kidoktorand.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Doctoral (PhD) student position in Cognitive Neuroscience

Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research? To be a doctoral student means to devote oneself to a research project under supervision of experienced researchers and following an individu

kidoktorand.varbi.com

20 years ago, Ehrsson, Spence, & @Dick_retired published a landmark study showing how the premotor and parietal cortex drive the sense of body ownership through multisensory integration in the rubber hand illusion. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Somatosensory and cerebellar activity reflects learning of predicted sensory delays in self-generated touch. Read the new Communications Biology article led by @kkilteni.bsky.social: www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Dynamic changes in somatosensory and cerebellar activity mediate temporal recalibration of self-touch - Communications Biology

An fMRI study suggests that adaptation to sensorimotor delays when touching one hand with the other dynamically alters the activity in somatosensory and cerebellar regions.

nature.com

Congratulations to Dominika Radziun (@nikaradziun.bsky.social) on winning this prestigious prize for your doctoral thesis! news.ki.se/doctoral-the...

Doctoral thesis awarded the Glushko Dissertation Prize

Dominika Radziun, a former PhD student at Karolinska Institutet, and currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Donders Institute, The Netherlands, has recently been awarded one of the five Glushko Di...

news.ki.se

Are you interested in the cognitive and neural processes underpinning the sense of bodily self? The deadline for the open postdoc position in our group is approaching on April 22. ki.varbi.com/what:job/job...

We are looking for new postdocs! Apply before April 22nd! ki.varbi.com/what:job/job...

Blind individuals' superior ability to sense their own heartbeats correlates with the thickness of their visual cortex. Check out the new preprint lead by Anna-Lena Stroh and @nikaradziun.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Sensing oneself: don't forget the subcortex! Crucianelli, Reader & Ehrsson review the subcortical contributions to the sense of body ownership – i.e. the feeling that one's body belongs to oneself. academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

Hello, we are now on BlueSky!