A mechanism for spatial perception on human skin

Francesca Fardo, Brianna Beck, Tony Cheng, Patrick Haggard*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaperJournal articleResearchpeer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original languageEnglish
JournalCognition
Volume178
Pages (from-to)236-243
Number of pages8
ISSN0010-0277
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2018

Keywords

  • Localisation
  • Path integration
  • Receptive fields
  • Skin
  • Space perception
  • Touch

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A mechanism for spatial perception on human skin'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this