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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 29, 2026

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Spontaneous Eye Movements Following Touch Reflect Canonical Body Postures.

Sylvain Gerin1,2, Michael Andres3,2

  • 1Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve 1348, Belgium sylvain.gerin@uclouvain.be.

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience
|April 27, 2026
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Humans localize tactile stimuli using prior knowledge of default body postures, not just current position. This study shows gaze shifts reveal a preferred hand posture, even when the hand is positioned differently.

Keywords:
canonical body posturesdefault postureeye-trackingpostural priorssomatosensorytactile remapping

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Human Perception
  • Somatosensory System

Background:

  • Tactile stimulus localization relies on postural information, with debate on whether current or default postures are used.
  • Tactile remapping is a proposed mechanism for localizing stimuli based on current body posture.
  • An alternative view suggests localization relies on prior information about default body postures.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether tactile localization uses current or default body posture information.
  • To determine the role of canonical body posture priors in tactile stimulus localization.
  • To explore how different stimulated areas influence the selection of postural priors.

Main Methods:

  • Recording spontaneous gaze behavior in human participants after tactile stimulation of the fingers.
  • Manipulating the posture of the right hand (palm-down, palm-up, mid-pronated, across body midline).
  • Analyzing gaze shift direction in response to tactile stimuli on different finger combinations.

Main Results:

  • Gaze shift direction mirrored digit arrangement in palm-down and palm-up postures.
  • Mid-pronated posture elicited gaze shifts consistent with a palm-down posture.
  • Hand position relative to the body midline altered gaze direction, opposing current posture.
  • Stimulation of different finger sets resulted in reference frames centered on the middle or ring finger.

Conclusions:

  • Tactile localization activates priors about canonical body postures, selected based on the stimulated area.
  • The findings support the role of default or canonical body posture information in tactile localization.
  • Evidence suggests multiple canonical postures are activated depending on the specific task or stimulated region.