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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 13, 2026

Force and Position Control in Humans - The Role of Augmented Feedback

Force and Position Control in Humans - The Role of Augmented Feedback

Published on: June 19, 2016

Attention modulates sensory suppression during back movements.

Lore Van Hulle¹, Georgiana Juravle, Charles Spence

¹Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. Lore.VanHulle@UGent.be

Consciousness and Cognition

|March 5, 2013

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Tactile perception is suppressed during back movements. This sensory suppression is reduced when attention is directed to the stimulated location, indicating top-down attentional modulation.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Somatosensation
Motor Control

Background:

Tactile perception is known to be impaired during movement, a phenomenon termed sensory suppression.
The extent to which this sensory suppression occurs during specific movements, like back movements, and its modulation by attention remains less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate tactile sensory suppression during back-bending movements.
To determine if attention modulates tactile detection during these movements.

Main Methods:

Two tactile detection experiments were conducted.
Participants performed a back-bending movement while detecting tactile stimuli on their upper or lower back.
Attentional focus was manipulated by varying stimulus probability at different locations.

Main Results:

Tactile detection was significantly suppressed during the execution of back movements.
Experiment 2 showed that tactile suppression was reduced when stimuli were consistently presented to the attended location.

Conclusions:

Movement-induced tactile sensory suppression occurs during back movements.
Top-down attentional processes can modulate this sensory suppression.
This paradigm may be useful for studying tactile processing in clinical populations.