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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 17, 2025

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

The shared numerical representation for action and perception develops independently from vision.

Irene Togoli¹, Virginie Crollen², Roberto Arrighi³

¹International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste, Italy.

Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior

|June 25, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Action influences number sense. Motor routines, like finger tapping, alter auditory numerosity perception in both sighted and blind individuals, showing a generalized interaction independent of vision.

Keywords:

Adaptation Blindness Cross-modal perception External remapping Numerosity perception

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Sensory Perception
Human-Animal Cognition

Background:

Humans possess an innate number sense for estimating quantities.
Recent research indicates a link between self-produced actions and perceived numerosity.
This action-perception interplay for numerosity is explored in relation to visual input and experience.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if the action-perception link for numerosity relies on visual input or experience.
To examine the effects of motor adaptation on auditory numerosity estimation in sighted and congenitally blind individuals.

Main Methods:

Adaptation to motor routines (finger tapping) was used to influence numerical estimates.
Participants included both sighted and congenitally blind individuals.
Auditory sequences were used to measure perceived numerosity following motor adaptation.

Main Results:

Consistent adaptation effects were observed in both groups: rapid tapping led to underestimation, slow tapping to overestimation of auditory numerosity.
Adaptation occurred in external space coordinates, independent of hand posture (crossed/uncrossed).
The findings were consistent across sighted and congenitally blind participants.

Conclusions:

A generalized interaction between action and perception for numerosity exists.
This interaction operates in external space and is independent of visual input or visual experience.
The number sense is robust and adaptable, transcending visual modality.