The role of cutaneous thermal signals in the feeling of the body as mine: A study from a Visual Capture of Ownership

Growing evidence points to a close relationship between thermosensory processing and body ownership. While alterations in ownership have been associated with reductions in skin temperature and thermoception, less is known about whether thermal signals can influence ownership and whether this influence depends on their subjective perception. This study addressed these questions using the Visual Capture of Ownership (VCO), a body ownership paradigm relying predominantly on visual information. Twenty-six healthy participants observed either a realistic rubber hand or a wooden control hand while their hidden real hand was maintained at neutral temperature, warmed, or cooled. Subjective embodiment, proprioceptive drift, and subjective thermal perception were assessed. Thermal stimulation did not modulate proprioceptive drift but influenced subjective embodiment: both warming and cooling reduced rubber hand embodiment relative to the neutral condition, while wooden hand ratings remained comparatively stable. Importantly, this effect depended on how individuals perceived the thermal signals themselves, with stronger modulation in participants with higher subjective thermal sensitivity. These findings support a potential contribution of cutaneous thermal processing and thermoception to subjective body ownership, even within a predominantly visual context, with this relationship emerging specifically for body-related stimuli. However, the low ownership ratings in the control condition limit conclusions about this selectivity. The comparable effects of warming and cooling may alternatively reflect increased perceptual salience of the real hand and attentional reorientation away from the artificial hand. Further research directly examining attention is needed to distinguish between these mechanisms.