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Updated: Aug 10, 2026

Applying Incongruent Visual-Tactile Stimuli during Object Transfer with Vibro-Tactile Feedback
Published on: May 23, 2019
A visual-haptic Necker cube reveals temporal constraints on intersensory merging during perceptual exploration
Nicola Bruno1, Alessandra Jacomuzzi, Marco Bertamini
1Dipartimento di Psicologia and BRAIN Center for Neuroscience, Università di Trieste, via S. Anastasio 12, 34134 Trieste, Italy. nick@psico.univ.trieste.it
Abstract:
When viewing a three-dimensional Necker cube with one eye, participants can experience illusory reversals even while they feel the cube with their hands. This surprising property of the visual-haptic Necker cube affords a unique opportunity to investigate temporal constraints on interactions between vision and touch during extended observation of a three-dimensional object. Our observers reported reversals while they viewed the cube and, at the same time, they either held it with two-finger grips, felt it with while their hands remained stationary, or actively explored it by moving one hand. Consistent with a multisensory approach to three-dimensional form perception, touch had a clear effect on both the number and the duration of illusory percepts. Additionally, when observers alternated between stationary and moving periods during exploration, transitions from stationary to moving-hand haptics played a crucial role in inhibiting illusory reversals. A temporal analysis of the probability of first reversals occurring after different types of motor transition revealed a "vetoing window" initiating approximately 2s after the transition and lasting at least another 1-2s. Implications for multisensory processes during exploration are discussed.
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