Study participants tricked into feeling an extra finger experience altered perceptions of their hand's abilities

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The brain can sometimes trick itself into feeling like it has an extra appendage or that the body extends farther into space than it actually does. This can happen when signals in the brain get crossed due to a mix of visual and tactile cues in the environment. This phenomenon has been the subject of several studies. Now, a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance goes a step beyond making the brain think it has an extra part to testing if this also reshapes the perception of the body's capabilities.