Dr. H. Henrik Ehrsson

H. Henrik Ehrsson, M.D., Ph.D. was born in Sweden in 1972 and is a medical doctor and neuroscientist by training. He worked as a research scientist at University College London and he is now a senior lecturer and research group leader at the Department of Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
 
Henrik has published over 30 articles on how we perceive our own bodies and how we control our bodily movements. His current research addresses the fundamental questions of how we recognize that our limbs are part of our own body, and why we feel that one’s self is located inside the body. Henrik’s labs’ main goal is “to identify the multisensory mechanisms whereby the central nervous system distinguishes between sensory signals from one’s body and from the environment. The long term goal is to develop a physiology-based model of the central representation of one’s body”.
 
Henrik coauthored Cortical Activity in Precision- Versus Power-Grip Tasks: An fMRI Study, That’s My Hand! Activity in Premotor Cortex Reflects Feeling of Ownership of a Limb, Differential Fronto-Parietal Activation Depending on Force Used in a Precision Grip Task: An fMRI Study, Imagery of Voluntary Movement of Fingers, Toes, and Tongue Activates Corresponding Body-Part-Specific Motor Representations, Illusory Arm Movements Activate Cortical Motor Areas: A Positron Emission Tomography Study, and Touching a Rubber Hand: Feeling of Body Ownership Is Associated with Activity in Multisensory Brain Areas.
 
His work has been widely cited in the international press including articles in the New York Times, Der Spiegel, The Economist, National Geographic, and the Times, and television appearances on Channel 4 and ABC News Good Morning America.
 
Watch Laboratory-Induced Out-Of-Body Experiences. Read Scientists produce illusion of body-swapping, Scientists propose explanation for out-of-body experiences, and Amputees can experience prosthetic hand as their own.