title: Now you feel it, now you don't: how robust is the phenomenon of illusory tactile experience?
abstract: Recent studies have reported that in normal healthy individuals, the perception of illusory sensations in one modality can be induced by the presentation of a stimulus in another modality. These illusory sensations may arise from the activation of a tactile representation in memory induced by the non-target stimulus, in a process mirroring that thought to be responsible for many forms of medically unexplained symptoms. The reliability of illusory-touch reports was investigated here in two experiments with a novel perceptual paradigm designed to simulate the occurrence of somatoform symptoms in the laboratory. A concurrent light significantly increased the number of tactile stimuli reported, and resulted in a higher number of illusory-touch reports, while the modality of the trial start cue did not affect subsequent responses. In addition, a strong relationship was found between the rates of illusory sensations that participants produced in successive sessions, indicating that the tendency to report illusory sensations is a robust phenomenon.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychology, School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Zochonis Building, Brunswick Street, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. Kirsten.McKenzie@manchester.ac.uk
authors.forename: Kirsten J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: McKenzie
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Poliakoff
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Donna M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Lloyd
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology*; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology; D055698:Touch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult