title: The effect of visuo-haptic congruency on haptic spatial matching.
abstract: Eye-hand coordination is crucial for everyday visuo-haptic object-manipulation. Noninformative vision has been reported to improve haptic spatial tasks relying on world-based reference frames. The current study investigated whether the degree of visuo-haptic congruity systematically affects haptic task performance. Congruent and parametrically varied incongruent visual orientation cues were presented while participants manually explored the orientation of a reference bar stimulus. Participants were asked to haptically match this reference orientation by turning a test bar either to a parallel or mirrored orientation, depending on the instruction. While parallel matching can only be performed correctly in a world-based frame, mirror matching (in the mid-sagittal plane) can also be achieved in a body-centered frame. We revealed that visuo-haptic incongruence affected parallel but not mirror matching responses in size and direction. Parallel matching did not improve when congruent visual orientation cues were provided throughout a run, and mirror matching even deteriorated. These results show that there is no positive effect of visual input on haptic performance per se. Tasks, which favor a body-centered frame are immune to incongruent visual input, while such input parametrically modulates performance on world-based haptic tasks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurophysiology, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Deutschordenstrasse 46, 60528, Frankfurt a.M, Germany. kaas@mpih-frankfurt.mpg.de
authors.forename: Amanda L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Kaas
authors.forename: Hanneke I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: van Mier
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lataster
authors.forename: Mirella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fingal
authors.forename: Alexander T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Sack
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology