Abstract
Perception of our own bodies is based on integration of visual and tactile inputs, notably by neurons in the brain's parietal lobes. Here we report a behavioural consequence of this integration process. Simply viewing the arm can speed up reactions to an invisible tactile stimulus on the arm. We observed this visual enhancement effect only when a tactile task required spatial computation within a topographic map of the body surface and the judgements made were close to the limits of performance. This effect of viewing the body surface was absent or reversed in tasks that either did not require a spatial computation or in which judgements were well above performance limits. We consider possible mechanisms by which vision may influence tactile processing.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Borsook D, Becerra L, Fishman S, Edwards A, Jennings CL, Stojanovic M, Papinicolas L, Ramachandran VS, Gonzalez RG, Breiter H (1998) Acute plasticity in the human somatosensory cortex following amputation. Neuroreport 9:1013–1017
Braun C, Schweizer R, Elbert T, Birbaumer N, Taub E (2000) Differential activation in somatosensory cortex for different discrimination tasks. J Neurosci 20:446–450
Calford MB, Tweedale R (1991) Immediate expansion of receptive-fields of neurons in area-3B of Macaque monkeys after digit denervation. Somatosens Mot Res 8:249–260
Graziano MSA (1999) Where is my arm? The relative role of vision and proprioception in the neuronal representation of limb position. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 96:10418–10421
Graziano MSA, Hu XTA, Gross CG (1997) Visuospatial properties of ventral premotor cortex. J Neurophysiol 77:2268–2292
Hamilton RH, Pascual-Leone A (1998) Cortical plasticity associated with Braille learning. Trends Cogn Sci 2:168–174
Iriki A, Tanaka M, Iwamura Y (1996) Coding of modified body schema during tool use by macaque postcentral neurones. Neuroreport 7:2325–2330
Iriki A, Tanaka M, Obayashi S, Iwamura Y (2001) Self-images in the video monitor coded by monkey intraparietal neurons. Neurosci Res 40:163–173
Kennett S, Eimer M, Spence C, Driver J (2001a) Tactile-visual links in exogenous spatial attention under different postures: convergent evidence from psychophysics and ERPs. J Cogn Neurosci 13:462–478
Kennett S, Taylor-Clarke M, Haggard P (2001b) Noninformative vision improves the spatial resolution of touch in humans. Curr Biol 11:1188–1191
Luce RD (1986) Response times: their role in inferring elementary mental organisation. Oxford University Press, New York
Macaluso E, Frith CD, Driver J (2000) Modulation of human visual cortex by crossmodal spatial attention. Science 289:1206–1208
McLeod P, Plunkett K, Rolls ET (1998) Introduction to connectionist modelling of cognitive processes. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Merzenich MM, Nelson RJ, Stryker MP, Cynader MS, Schoppman A, Zook JM (1984) Somatosensory cortical map changes following digit amputation in adult monkeys. J Comp Neurol 224:591–605
Obayashi S, Tanaka M, Iriki A (2000) Subjective image of invisible hand coded by monkey intraparietal neurons. Neuroreport 11:3499–3505
Penfield W, Rasmussen T (1950) The cerebral cortex of man: a clinical study of localization of function. MacMillan, New York
Post LJ, Chapman CE (1991) The effects of cross-modal manipulations of attention on the detection of vibrotactile stimuli in humans. Somatosens Mot Res 8:149–157
Recanzone GH, Merzenich MM, Jenkins WM, Grajski KA, Dinse HR (1992) Topographic reorganisation of the hand representation in cortical area 3b of owl monkeys trained in a frequency discrimination task. J Neurophysiol 67:1031–1056
Sirigu A, Daprati E, Pradat-Diehl P, Franck N, Jeannerod M (1999) Perception of self-generated movement following left parietal lesion. Brain 122:1867–1874
Spence C, Driver J (1997) On measuring selective attention to an expected sensory modality. Percept Psychophys 59:389–403
Spence C, Nicholls MER, Gillespie N, Driver J (1998) Cross-modal links in exogenous covert spatial orienting between touch, audition, and vision. Percept Psychophys 60:544–557
Taylor-Clarke M, Kennett S, Haggard P (2002) Vision modulates somatosensory cortical processing. Curr Biol 12:233–236
Tipper SP, Lloyd D, Shorland B, Dancer C, Howard LA, McGlone F (1998) Vision influences tactile perception without proprioceptive orienting. Neuroreport 9:1741–1744
Tipper SP, Phillips N, Dancer C, Lloyd D, Howard LA, McGlone F (2001) Vision influences tactile perception at body sites that cannot be viewed directly. Exp Brain Res 139:160–167
Weber EH (1834) The Sense of Touch. Academic Press, London, UK
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by grants from the Medical Research Council (UK), the Wellcome Trust and the Leverhulme Trust. We thank John Christie for advice.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Press, C., Taylor-Clarke, M., Kennett, S. et al. Visual enhancement of touch in spatial body representation. Exp Brain Res 154, 238–245 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-003-1651-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-003-1651-x