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Updated: Dec 20, 2025
04:40
Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator TSPAS
Published on: July 30, 2020
3.2K
Eye position affects the perceived location of touch.
Vanessa Harrar1, Laurence R Harris
1Department of Psychology, Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada. vharrar@yorku.ca
Experimental Brain Research
|June 18, 2009
Summary
Your perception of touch on the arm shifts towards your gaze direction. Eye position significantly influences tactile location, demonstrating multisensory integration in spatial coding.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Sensory Perception
- Human Factors
Background:
- The brain integrates information from multiple senses to construct a coherent perception of the world.
- Understanding how visual and somatosensory information interact is crucial for explaining spatial awareness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the influence of eye position on the perceived location of tactile stimuli on the arm.
- To determine the extent to which visual attention contributes to this somatosensory shift.
Main Methods:
- Participants reported tactile stimulus locations on the forearm while fixating at different visual eccentricities.
- A control condition with eyes fixating straight ahead was used.
- The visibility of the arm was manipulated.
Main Results:
- Tactile stimuli were systematically perceived closer to the direction of gaze, with shifts up to 5 cm.
- Eye position changes explained a significant portion of the tactile shift, far exceeding attention effects (17%).
- The perceived distance between tactile stimuli on the forearm increased when the arm was visible.
Conclusions:
- Perception of tactile location on the arm is modulated by where the eyes are looking.
- Spatial coding of touch involves the integration of visual, eye position, and somatosensory information.
- Visual feedback regarding arm visibility affects the perceived spatial resolution of tactile stimuli.
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