Feeling of a presence and anomalous body perception

Abstract

The feeling of a presence (FoP) is an illusory vivid feeling that there is another person nearby who is not seen, heard, or felt. In neuropsychiatry, FoP has traditionally been classified among disorders of the body schema but has also been reported from times immemorial by healthy individuals in various conditions. Here the chapter reviews key neurological and psychiatric data on FoP and the involved neural mechanisms. Particular relevance will be given to the distinction between body schema versus body image in the FoP. This is followed by a description of recent efforts in engineering and cognitive neuroscience to apply robotics technology to experimentally induce and study FoP and its phenomenology. The chapter concludes by describing an exciting new research field that integrates consciousness studies, cognitive neuroscience, and engineering—cognetics.