2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Does a sense of agency for a virtual body contribute to the activation of neural circuits in the reward system?

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	20K20480
Project/Area Number (Other)	19H05573 (2019)
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Pioneering)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund (2020) Single-year Grants (2019)
Review Section	Medium-sized Section 59:Sports sciences, physical education, health sciences, and related fields
Research Institution	Tokyo Metropolitan University (2022) Keio University (2019-2021)
Principal Investigator	Kaneko Fuminari 東京都立大学, 人間健康科学研究科, 准教授 (00344200)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	牛場潤一慶應義塾大学, 理工学部(矢上), 教授 (00383985)
Project Period (FY)	2019-06-28 – 2023-03-31
Keywords	身体所有感 / 主体感 / 報酬 / 仮想現実 / 脳
Outline of Final Research Achievements	The purpose of this study is to clarify the hypothesis that "even if it is a virtual body, if you succeed in moving it independently and perceive kinesthesia, the neural circuits of the reward system will be activated." there were. This study consisted of three experiments. (1) Relationship between sense of agency and brain activity for virtual body, (2) Verification of brain regions involved in self-embodimentation, (3) Verification of brain regions related to intensity of illusion for self-embodied images From these studies, we have examined the effects of self-bodyification and kinesthetic illusions on self-body images on reward neural circuits in healthy subjects and lower limb amputations. In the future, we were able to obtain exploratory research results that can be judged to be worth expanding to include stroke patients.
Free Research Field	神経生理学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	本研究は，自己身体映像に対する自己身体化と運動錯覚が報酬系神経回路に及ぼす影響を検証したものである。この研究成果は，脳卒中などの中枢神経障害により感覚運動麻痺を呈する患者のリハビリテーションに当該研究手法を適用した場合の効果機序を解明することにつながり，治療として新しいアプローチを開拓できる。このように本研究は，脳卒中などの中枢神経障害により感覚運動麻痺を呈する患者のリハビリテーション，あるいはスポーツなどで運動学習する過程において，ヒトが“報酬”を感じることの本質を科学的に理解するための一助となる。