How our brains become 'disembodied'

Scientists in Italy have discovered how our brains can be tricked into feeling disembodied from our own limbs.

Scientists at the universities of Turin and Milan previously worked with brain damaged patients whose sense of "body ownership" is disrupted.

Now, using a very strange trick called the rubber hand illusion on healthy volunteers, the scientists measured changes in the brain that take place when we lose our in-built sense that our limbs are part of our bodies.

The findings are published in the journal ELife.

Filmed and edited by Victoria Gill