DISOWNING an arm or a leg despite the fact that it is still attached to the body is a common symptom of stroke, anorexia and schizophrenia. And, curiously, the temperature of these rejected limbs is always low.
Now Lorimer Moseley at the University of Oxford and colleagues have reproduced this temperature drop in healthy people who have been tricked into disowning a limb. The work implies a more complex relationship between mind and body than had been thought.
The so-called “rubber hand illusion” is induced by stroking a person’s hand while it is out of their sight and at the same time stroking a visible rubber…
