Figure 1.

The experimental set-up and the four experimental conditions: the participant saw the virtual environment through the HMD while an experimenter moved her right index finger to move the avatar’s right index finger accordingly. When the heat stimulation provided on the right wrist was felt as painful by the participant, she stopped the stimulation by pressing the button held on her left hand (A). Top view of the posture of participant’s arm resting on the table, matching avatar’s posture (B). The visuo-proprioceptive congruent feedback given by the finger movements and the first-person perspective view of the avatar fostered the embodiment of the virtual limb while the skin color changed into blue (C), red (D), or green (E) as soon as the heat stimulation started increasing in temperature. In the fourth condition, the skin of the virtual arm did not change color but a gray spot on the table turned into red (F).