Tricking Your Brain into Loving Your Body: The Integrated Power of Body Illusions and Interoceptive Technologies

Given the multidimensional nature of bodily experiences in conditions characterized by altered body image, the POSITive Project (Program for Optimal Self-Image Therapy) involves researchers from different institutions: the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and the Humane Technology Laboratory at the Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy. The project aims to develop a comprehensive approach that targets both the internal and external components of the body of individuals with BDD in order to improve their symptoms. In fact, the theoretical model known as regenerative virtual therapy (RVT) supports the idea that it is possible to access, rewrite, and modify the aberrant content of the bodily representation using technologies that can influence and alter every aspect of our bodily experience. Specifically, this paradigm recommends combining multiple methods, such as virtual reality (VR) and interoceptive technologies, to target unique aspects of our bodily experience and provide healthy probabilistic multisensory representations to the individual.