Brain, Body, and Self Lab

We study the sense of self, body representation, and the human brain. Based at Karolinska Institutet, led by Henrik Ehrsson.

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

New paper from our lab in Neuropsychologia, led by @coppi_sara. Visual stimuli near the body speed responses to painful stimulation. We also show that the sense of body ownership influences nociceptive processing, linking pain, peripersonal space, and the bodily self.
https://t.co/DgcNefOLZL

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

Can the rubber hand illusion change how much pain we feel? We combined evidence from 22 experiments and found no meaningful effect in healthy participants, challenging the idea that body-ownership illusions reduce pain. Study led by @coppi_sara.
https://t.co/UxPoXTOWMx

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

Congratulations Dr. Sara Coppi (@coppi_sara) on the superb defense of your PhD thesis, 'The Relationship between Nociception, Pain, and Body Ownership'!

[Sara Coppi @coppi_sara]

See you at #BRNET2026! I'll be giving a short talk today (~16:20, Palazzo Bo, Padova) on the role of body ownership in visuo-nociceptive interactions within peripersonal space. 🧠✨

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

New study! SDT used to dissociate body ownership sensitivity from perceptual bias in the rubber hand illusion with partial visual occlusion. Disrupting visually-driven tactile predictions shifts perceptual bias but not visuotactile sensitivity. See below.

[Renzo Lanfranco @Renzo_Lanfranco]

What makes a body feel like our own? Body ownership is a core aspect of self-awareness, & it depends on the integration of multiple sensory signals. What role do visual predictions play in body ownership? See our paper out in Royal Society Open Science: https://t.co/Rya94tHG8A

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

Congratulations to Yatong Wen on being awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship in record-tough competition! Exciting new experiments on the way! https://t.co/9uSX0MijyT

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

New results! Faster parietal alpha frequency sharpens the temporal window for vision–touch integration, yielding a more precise sense of one’s own body. Slower alpha widens it. Nature Communications. Link and thread by @DAngeloMariano below

[Mariano D'Angelo @DAngeloMariano]

Happy to share our new study on the role of alpha frequency in integrating self-related sensory information into a coherent perceptual experience of one’s body!
With @BrainSelf at @karolinskainst, out now in Nature Communications @NatureComms
https://t.co/7qNod5sCTi

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

Mariano D'Angelo @DAngeloMariano presents a new study at this year's Karolinska Department of Neuroscience retreat (in press).

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

Brain, Body & Self lab celebrating 2025 with a traditional Julbord at Hasselbacken, Stockholm

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

The body might be doing more for consciousness than you think. In this The Conversation article, @RenzoLanfranco breaks down our new PNAS study:

https://t.co/xXeWIRGXvs

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

Our new PNAS study shows that bodily self-perception has privileged access to consciousness. While vision and hearing often involve unconscious processing, the sense of one’s own body appears to emerge directly in awareness. See link and thread below.

[Renzo Lanfranco @Renzo_Lanfranco]

Happy to share our new and groundbreaking study on the relationship between conscious awareness and the sense of bodily self! With @BrainSelf at @karolinskainst and out in PNAS @PNASNews : https://t.co/pZKIaq8ZaR

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

New preprint!

[Renzo Lanfranco @Renzo_Lanfranco]

Happy to share our new preprint on bodily self-perception! Here, we show that tactile predictions in the rubber hand illusion are as important as feeling touch on the hand to elicit the feeling of ownership: https://t.co/ztOfOJX0sw

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

Check out the symposium “Recent Developments in Bodily Self-awareness Research” hosted by @coppi_sara at ICON 2025 in Porto tomorrow!

[Sara Coppi @coppi_sara]

Excited to host the symposium “Recent Developments in Bodily Self-awareness Research” at ICON 2025, in Porto 🧠

🗓️ Fri 19th | ⏰ 1:30 PM
Speakers: @IriyeIriye @DAngeloMariano @Renzo_Lanfranco + me
@BrainSelf @Icon2025 #CognitiveNeuroscience

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

Congratulations Arvid!

[Arvid Guterstam @arvidguterstam]

Happy and grateful that my @ERC_Research StG was approved for funding! Goal: understanding the brain mechanisms of spontaneous theory of mind, revealing potential differences between neurotypical and autistic people, and exploring ways to boost theory-of-mind ability

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

New study led by @PTacikowski shows that reducing body ownership through a perceptual illusion leads to fragmentation in self-concept. This link between the bodily and conceptual self may shed light on dissociative experiences and mental health.
https://t.co/zmz923so1b

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

Octopuses feel the rubber hand illusion—or at least their behaviour suggests they do.
https://t.co/dn9pJAoTTY

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

New study out in iScience, led by @coppi_sara: During the rubber hand illusion, pain is mislocalized toward the rubber hand, just like touch and proprioception. This nociceptive drift reveals how pain, like other senses, is integrated into the bodily self.
https://t.co/nq6CCvteQn

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

Feeling fear through a fake body? Our new study, led by @RyuOhata, shows that illusory body ownership amplifies subjective fear in response to nearby fear-relevant animals (spiders) and increases fear of safety-margin violations.
https://t.co/ACPTCN5Y5Z

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

We are seeking a postdoctoral researcher to join the Brain, Body, and Self Lab at Karolinska Institutet. For details, see the link below. Application deadline: March 17
https://t.co/sjIuYTWevU

[Brain, Body, and Self Lab @BrainSelf]

New preprint exploring the role of alpha oscillations in integrating self-related sensory information and distinguishing the bodily self from external events. See link and thread below. Led by @DAngeloMariano

[Mariano D'Angelo @DAngeloMariano]

In a new preprint we demonstrated that the frequency of alpha oscillations plays a crucial role in binding self-related sensory information into a coherent perceptual experience of one’s body and distinguishing this bodily self from external sensory events https://t.co/EEBX8vI6m1