Fearful Thoughts Erode Your Sense of Body Ownership, Study Shows

At a Glance

Anxiety acts as an “invisible thief” that diminishes one’s sense of bodily ownership.
Research shows fearful thoughts disrupt the brain’s ability to integrate sensory information about the body.
Merely imagining pain weakens feelings of bodily ownership, similar to symptoms in depersonalization disorder.
Skin conductance tests reveal physical reactions to fear stimuli weaken during anxious states.
Fear bypasses normal multisensory integration networks in the brain, creating disconnection from the physical self.

Anxiety, like an invisible thief, appears to steal something most of us take for granted: our sense of bodily ownership. Recent research shows that when we experience fearful thoughts—especially those involving pain or bodily harm—our brain’s ability to integrate sensory information goes haywire, fundamentally making us feel less connected to our physical selves.

Scientists studying this phenomenon have discovered something pretty wild: just imagining pain can weaken how strongly you feel that your body is actually yours.

Just imagining pain diminishes our sense of bodily ownership—like fear temporarily erases the connection to our physical selves.

They measured this using skin conductance responses (fancy talk for how sweaty your palms get) when faced with threatening stimuli. Turns out, when people were asked to imagine bodily pain, their physical reactions to fear stimuli became notably weaker—basically, their brains weren’t fully recognizing danger to their bodies!

This disconnect isn’t just some laboratory curiosity. It mirrors what happens in depersonalization disorder, where people feel detached from themselves, like they’re watching their lives from the outside. Modern VR exposure therapy has shown remarkable success rates of up to 90% in treating such dissociative symptoms.

Folks who score high on depersonalization tests show even more dramatic drops in body ownership, especially when they’re asked to associate themselves with negative bodily sensations.

Virtual reality experiments have shed light on this bizarre mind-body relationship too. Researchers found they could trick people into feeling ownership of virtual avatars through synchronized touch sensations, but throw some pain imagery into the mix, and poof—that ownership feeling starts evaporating faster than a puddle in the desert.

What’s happening brain-wise? Fear appears to bypass the normal multisensory integration networks and disrupts subcortical regions like the insula and basal ganglia, which are vital for maintaining our sense of embodiment. The cerebellum also plays a crucial role as it contributes to coherent perceptual representation of our bodies during these multisensory experiences.

It’s like fear cuts the phone lines between your conscious awareness and your physical self. One study demonstrated this using a setup where participants viewed their digital avatars from a third-person perspective, which produced weaker body ownership illusions compared to first-person views.

The implications are substantial—when we lose touch with our bodies, we may respond poorly to threats, neglect physical needs, or experience worsening symptoms of dissociation. Next time anxiety grips you, remember: it’s not just making you nervous—it might literally be stealing your sense of self.