Abstract
The perceived size of objects touching different regions of skin varies across the body surface by much less than is predicted from variations in tactile receptor density. Here we show that altering the visual experience of the body alters perceived tactile distances. We propose that the brain attempts to preserve tactile size constancy by rescaling the primary, distorted body-surface representation into object-centered space according to visual experience of the body.
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Acknowledgements
Supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (M.T.C.), and a Leverhulme Trust research fellowship (P.H.). We thank J. Woodhouse, S. Kennett and D. Wolpert for advice and support.
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Supplementary Fig. 1
Bias in tactile distance judgment before and after viewing an enlarged video image of the hand. (JPG 31 kb)
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Taylor-Clarke, M., Jacobsen, P. & Haggard, P. Keeping the world a constant size: object constancy in human touch. Nat Neurosci 7, 219–220 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1199
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1199
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