Tactile force perception depends on the visual speed of the collision object.
Previous research on the interaction between vision and touch has employed static visual and continuous tactile stimuli, and has shown that two kinds of multimodal interaction effect exist: the averaging effect and the contrast effect. The averaging effect has been used to explain several kinds of stimuli interaction while the contrast effect is associated only with the size-weight illusion (A. Charpentier, 1891). Here, we describe a novel visuotactile interaction using visual motion information that can be explained with the contrast effect. We show that the magnitude of tactile force perception (MTFP) from an impact on the palm is significantly modified by the visual motion information of a virtual collision event. Our collision simulator generates visual stimuli independently from the corresponding tactile stimuli. The results show that visual speed modified MTFP even though the actual contact force remained constant: higher visual pre- and post-collision speeds induced lower tactile force perception. Finally, we propose a quantitative model of MTFP in which MTFP is expressed as a function of the visual velocity difference, suggesting that the gain of the tactile perception in the human brain is altered via MTFP modulation.
Arai
Kan
K
Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences, Yokohama National University, Kanagawa, Japan.
Okajima
Katsunori
K
D005260:Female; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D010812:Physical Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*; D014584:User-Computer Interface