Neural Mechanisms of Bodily Self-Consciousness and the Experience of Presence in Virtual Reality

Recent neuroscience research emphasizes the embodied origins of the experience of the self. This chapter shows that further advances in the understanding of the phenomenon of VR-induced presence might be achieved in connection with advances in the understanding of the brain mechanisms of bodily self-consciousness. By reviewing the neural mechanisms that make the virtual reality experience possible and the neurocognitive models of bodily self-consciousness, we highlight how the development of applied human computer confluence technologies and the fundamental scientific investigation of bodily self-consciousness benefit from each other in a symbiotic manner.