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Visualization Method for Proprioceptive Drift on a 2D Plane Using Support Vector Machine
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Published on: October 27, 2016

An implicit body representation underlying human position sense.

Matthew R Longo1, Patrick Haggard

  • 1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom. m.longo@ucl.ac.uk

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|June 16, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Humans possess a mental body model for spatial perception, but its properties are unclear. This study reveals a distorted internal representation of hand size and shape, with characteristically shortened fingers and broadened hands.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Perception
  • Somatosensory System

Background:

  • Proprioception relies on integrating joint angles with body segment dimensions.
  • Accurate spatial perception necessitates a stored body model for metric properties like size and shape.
  • Previous research has not systematically investigated the characteristics of this internal body model.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop and apply a novel technique for isolating and measuring the mental body model.
  • To investigate the implicit representation of hand size and shape within the body model.
  • To characterize the distortions present in the mental representation of the hand.

Main Methods:

  • Developed a technique to isolate and measure the body model.
  • Participants judged the external spatial locations of 10 hand landmarks.
  • Analyzed the internal configuration of landmark locations to create implicit maps of hand representation.

Main Results:

  • The mental representation of hand size and shape is significantly distorted.
  • These distortions are reliable and characteristic, featuring shortened fingers and broadened hands.
  • The observed distortions share similarities with primary somatosensory cortical representations.

Conclusions:

  • Human position sense relies on an internal body model with specific metric properties.
  • The mental representation of the hand is not veridical but systematically distorted.
  • These findings offer insights into the neural basis of body representation and spatial awareness.