Rubber Hand

It’s common for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder to fear contamination and spend lots of energy trying to avoid being contaminated or washing away the perceived dirtiness. A common treatment method is to basically force someone with OCD to touch something they perceive as dirty and then sit with that anxiety rather than immediately washing. It's called exposure therapy. But some people just flat-out refuse to touch the dirty object. Neuroscientist Baland Jalal has invented a way to coax patients into exposure therapy using a trick called the rubber hand illusion. (Segment produced by Abby Haralson)