A new study released this week by researchers at Vanderbilt University suggests that the mind-body connection in schizophrenics is less strong than in healthy people. This could mean that new therapies focusing on reclaiming once sense of body ownership could diminish other schizophrenic symptoms.
In the studies, schizophrenic patients and control subjects were both subjected to the rubber hand illusion (RHI), a test developed in 1998 in which a person is shown an artificial hand being stroked by a brush while their own hand is simultaneous stroked while hidden from view. The degree to which a participant begins to feel the strokes applied to the artificial hand indicates how easily the mind is willing to “disown” the individual's own hand in favor of the rubber one.
While the illusion is present to some degree for all people, schizophrenics consistently experienced it more strongly. For one participant, the effect was strong enough to trigger an out-of-body experience, where the participant felt as though he was floating above his own body for nearly 15 minutes.
The sense of body ownership is one of two commonly-identified facets of self-awareness, the other being the feeling that one is in charge of one's own actions. While much of the scientific literature on schizophrenia has emphasized the patients' loss of a sense of agency, not much work had been done on body ownership. This new study indicated that a schizophrenic's sense of self is more fluid than healthy people.
If true, this could open whole new avenues for treatment, including physical rehabilitation and exercise regimens meant to strengthen the patients' senses of themselves. The more precise the control needed for a particular form of exercise—dance or yoga, for example—the more potent the potential for successful treatment.
Source: Vanderbilt University
