Vision of the body increases interference on the somatic signal detection task

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Somatosensory research

Background:

• Attention significantly influences somatic perception in healthy individuals and those with somatic disturbances.
• Erroneous touch sensations, or false alarms, are a known somatic disturbance measurable by tasks like the Somatic Signal Detection Task (SSDT).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how attending to the body affects somatic awareness.
• To examine the impact of visual attention to the body on erroneous touch sensation reports using the SSDT.

Main Methods:

• Thirty-seven participants completed the SSDT, a task requiring detection of near-threshold tactile stimulation.
• Participants performed the SSDT under two visual conditions: non-informative vision of the hand and no vision of the hand.
• False alarms and accuracy (hit rates, sensitivity, response criterion) were measured in both conditions.

Main Results:

• False alarms were significantly higher when participants had non-informative vision of their hand compared to when they had no vision.
• Non-informative visual feedback of the hand did not affect hit rates, sensitivity (d'), or response criterion (c).
• Visualizing the body increased somatic interference during tactile detection.

Conclusions:

• Viewing the body can heighten awareness of internal bodily sensations, potentially leading to increased somatic interference.
• Visual attention to the body can detrimentally affect the simple detection of near-threshold tactile stimuli.