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Mind

Strange illusion makes people forget where their teeth are

By Jason Arunn Murugesu

20 July 2019

Dentures

Now, where did I leave my teeth?

Tewin Kijthamrongworakul / Alamy Stock Photo

Your mouth may not be where you think it is. An illusion that tricks people into thinking their teeth are closer to their neck than in reality shows that our bodily perceptions are easily influenced.

Davide Bono and Patrick Haggard at University College London developed the experiment inspired by the rubber hand illusion, a famous illusion in psychology where the participant believes a rubber hand is their own.

In Bono and Haggard’s experiment, the participant wears a blindfold and places their head on a …

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