The Action Lab is a YouTube channel that performs home experiments and answers science related questions. In this video, they trick their brain into thinking a rubber hand is their real one as a hydraulic press smashes it.
At the 5:10 timestamp of the video, the participant in the experiment exclaims as the press crushes the rubber hand. Despite knowing it is not actually a part of his body, he is still able to experience feeling in the rubber hand through a phenomenon called the Rubber Hand Illusion.
In order to set up the hydraulic press experiment, The Action Lab first needed to demonstrate that their brains can be tricked into thinking that the rubber hand is their real one. They demonstrate this process and the science behind it at an earlier 0:40 timestamp.
The rubber hand is in the sleeve of the experiment’s participant and a blanket is draped across both the real and rubber arm. A divider hides the real hand from sight, making the rubber hand appear to be part of the participant’s body.
The video explains that research of the RHI (Rubber Hand Illusion) began when scientists observed that some stroke patients felt as if parts of their own body did not belong to them, despite being attached. They may have even believed someone else’s hand was actually theirs. While the two conditions are not the same, this confused bodily ownership in stroke patients could be compared to phantom limb syndrome. According to research published by Lama Chahine and Ghassan Kanazi, 80 – 100% of amputees experience phantom limb syndrome, which is when pain or other sensations is felt in a limb that does not exist.
According to the video, scientists were intrigued by the confused bodily ownership in stroke patients. Thus, they began to research ways to further create and experiment with this phenomenon. The RHI is a product of this research.
At the 2:43 timestamp of the video, the RHI experiment begins. Establishing the sensation of ownership in the rubber hand is necessary in order to see if crushing the hand in the hydraulic press would cause pain. The created illusion awes, disturbs, and surprises participants. The result of establishing the RHI is called dismemberment. When participants can no longer distinguish their real hand from the rubber one, research shows there are delayed responses to electrical signals sent down the real hand that is experiencing the illusion.
Interested in watching more science-related videos? Check out this article about a plane passenger recording a UFO.
