Effects of visual and tactile training on motor behaviour

Human sensory abilities are crucial for interaction with the environment. It is known that the way we perceive the world through our senses can be improved following training. Sensory training and motor behaviour have been widely investigated, however, the direct effect of an improved sensory ability on motor behaviour is not clearly understood. In the visual domain, it has been shown that visual perception is affected by the space in which the stimuli are presented, with a better performance when stimuli are near (peripersonal space) compared to far (extrapersonal space) from our body. In the tactile domain, it has been shown that tactile training is an effective procedure to improve spatial acuity, however, there is contrasting evidence regarding whether such improvement is affecting motor behaviour. The role of visual and tactile training and their effects in space and on motor behaviour are investigated through two lines of research. The first line of research investigated the effectiveness of visual training when stimuli are presented near compared to far from the body. Surprisingly, we found that, differently from what happens in visual perception, visual training is more effective in the far compared to the near space. We suggest that such an effect is possibly due to greater deployment of attention in the far space, which could make the learning more impactful and generalisable across spaces. The second line of research explored the effect of passive tactile training (Repetitive Somatosensory Stimulation) applied to a finger, on hand motor behaviour and corticospinal excitability. Results revealed that passive tactile training affects the performance in a tactile task and

in turn, modulates motor behaviour. Overall, this research provides new insights regarding the efficacy of visual perceptual learning in space (peripersonal vs extrapersonal) and the potential role of tactile passive training in altering motor behaviour.