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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 15, 2026

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Published on: April 16, 2014

Seeing the body distorts tactile size perception.

Matthew R Longo¹, Renata Sadibolova

¹Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom. m.longo@bbk.ac.uk

|January 15, 2013

Summary

Seeing your own body, even non-informatively, alters touch perception. This study found that vision of the body significantly reduces the perceived size of tactile stimuli, demonstrating how visual input distorts somatosensation.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Psychology
Somatosensation

Background:

Vision influences somatosensation, affecting tactile acuity and pain perception.
Previous research shows vision modulates somatosensory sensitivity.
The impact of vision on metric properties of touch, like size perception, remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how non-informative vision of the body affects tactile size perception.
To determine if seeing the body distorts the metric properties of touch.

Main Methods:

Utilized the mirror box illusion to create a visual illusion of seeing the stimulated left hand.
Manipulated visual conditions: seeing stimulated hand, seeing a non-body object, or seeing the contralateral hand.
Participants verbally estimated perceived distances between tactile stimuli on the left hand.

Main Results:

Vision of the body significantly reduced the perceived size of tactile stimuli compared to other visual conditions.
No significant changes in perceived hand size were observed.
Tactile size perception was distorted by visual information of the body.

Conclusions:

Non-informative vision of the body demonstrably distorts tactile size perception.
Visual feedback of the body alters the metric properties of touch.
This highlights the complex interplay between visual and somatosensory systems.