14 DAY TRIAL // We humans have long fantasized about being invisible. Rather than develop high-tech cloaks designed to hide them from view, researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden made it possible for a group of volunteers to experience the sensation of invisibility simply by toying with their brain.
Basically, the scientists altered the volunteers’ perception of themselves and of the world around them, and tricked their brain into thinking that a portion of empty space was in fact their body.
How the experiments played out
The specialists explain that, to trick the study participants into thinking that they were invisible, they started by fitting them with head-mounted displays that kept them from observing their body. Instead, all the volunteers could see when looking down was empty space.
To take the illusion one step further, the scientists then stroked the study participants with a paintbrush while at the same time touching empty space in the same manner. Soon enough, the participants' brain transferred the sensation of touch to the empty space.
“Within less than a minute, the majority of the participants started to transfer the sensation of touch to the portion of empty space where they saw the paintbrush move and experienced an invisible body in that position,” said Karolinska Institutet researcher Arvid Guterstam.
Because their brain was convinced that the empty space was their body, the volunteers flinched when the scientists pretended to stab the nothingness. Such reactions weren't documented in any of the volunteers when the illusion of having of an invisible body was broken.
The illusion influenced behavior
Having tricked the 125 volunteers that they worked with into thinking that they had an invisible body, the researchers had them interact with others and found the experience to have influenced their behavior in that it made them less anxious and stressed.
This indicates that our perception of our body influences how we behave in social contexts and how we act when around others. The researchers want to continue investigating the phenomenon and see whether inducing an illusion of invisibility could tackle mental issues such as social anxiety disorder.
