Abstract
The visual system uses several signals to deduce the three-dimensional structure of the environment, including binocular disparity, texture gradients, shading and motion parallax. Although each of these sources of information is independently insufficient to yield reliable three-dimensional structure from everyday scenes, the visual system combines them by weighting the available information; altering the weights would therefore change the perceived structure. We report that haptic feedback (active touch) increases the weight of a consistent surface-slant signal relative to inconsistent signals. Thus, appearance of a subsequently viewed surface is changed: the surface appears slanted in the direction specified by the haptically reinforced signal.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by NSF grant (DBS-9309820) and AFOSR grant (93NL366) to M.S.B. and by the Max-Planck Society. The authors thank Robert Cooper and Mike Landy for comments.
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Ernst, M., Banks, M. & Bülthoff, H. Touch can change visual slant perception. Nat Neurosci 3, 69–73 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/71140
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/71140
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