title: Touch can change visual slant perception.
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.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Spemannstr. 38, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany. marc.ernst@tuebingen.mpg.de
authors.forename: M O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Banks
authors.forename: H H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Bülthoff
mesh_terms: D001676:Biofeedback, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D003626:Data Display; D003867:Depth Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004215:Distance Perception / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013499:Surface Properties; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*