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A mechanism for spatial perception on human skin

Fardo, Francesca, Beck, Brianna, Cheng, Tony, Haggard, Patrick (2018) A mechanism for spatial perception on human skin. Cognition, 178 . pp. 236-243. ISSN 0010-0277. (doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2018.05.024) (KAR id:70402)

Abstract

Our perception of where touch occurs on our skin shapes our interactions with the world. Most accounts of cutaneous localisation emphasise spatial transformations from a skin-based reference frame into body-centred and external egocentric coordinates. We investigated another possible method of tactile localisation based on an intrinsic perception of ‘skin space’. The arrangement of cutaneous receptive fields (RFs) could allow one to track a stimulus as it moves across the skin, similarly to the way animals navigate using path integration. We applied curved tactile motions to the hands of human volunteers. Participants identified the location midway between the start and end points of each motion path. Their bisection judgements were systematically biased towards the integrated motion path, consistent with the characteristic inward error that occurs in navigation by path integration. We thus showed that integration of continuous sensory inputs across several tactile RFs provides an intrinsic mechanism for spatial perception.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.cognition.2018.05.024
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User: Brianna Beck
Date Deposited: 03 Dec 2018 13:52 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Dec 2022 06:05 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/70402 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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