title: Learning New Sensorimotor Contingencies: Effects of Long-Term Use of Sensory Augmentation on the Brain and Conscious Perception.
abstract: Theories of embodied cognition propose that perception is shaped by sensory stimuli and by the actions of the organism. Following sensorimotor contingency theory, the mastery of lawful relations between own behavior and resulting changes in sensory signals, called sensorimotor contingencies, is constitutive of conscious perception. Sensorimotor contingency theory predicts that, after training, knowledge relating to new sensorimotor contingencies develops, leading to changes in the activation of sensorimotor systems, and concomitant changes in perception. In the present study, we spell out this hypothesis in detail and investigate whether it is possible to learn new sensorimotor contingencies by sensory augmentation. Specifically, we designed an fMRI compatible sensory augmentation device, the feelSpace belt, which gives orientation information about the direction of magnetic north via vibrotactile stimulation on the waist of participants. In a longitudinal study, participants trained with this belt for seven weeks in natural environment. Our EEG results indicate that training with the belt leads to changes in sleep architecture early in the training phase, compatible with the consolidation of procedural learning as well as increased sensorimotor processing and motor programming. The fMRI results suggest that training entails activity in sensory as well as higher motor centers and brain areas known to be involved in navigation. These neural changes are accompanied with changes in how space and the belt signal are perceived, as well as with increased trust in navigational ability. Thus, our data on physiological processes and subjective experiences are compatible with the hypothesis that new sensorimotor contingencies can be acquired using sensory augmentation.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabine U
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5981-2025
authors.initials: SU
authors.lastname: König
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.|Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schumann
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Keyser
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.
authors.forename: Caspar
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Goeke
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.
authors.forename: Carina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wache
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.
authors.forename: Aleksey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lytochkin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ebert
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Brunsch
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.
authors.forename: Basil
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wahn
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.|Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kaspar
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.
authors.forename: Saskia K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Nagel
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Meilinger
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Heinrich
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bülthoff
authors.affiliation: Aging & Cognition Research Group, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wolbers
authors.affiliation: NeuroImage Nord, Department of Systems Neuroscience, Hamburg University Hospital Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Büchel
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.|Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: König
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D003243:Consciousness; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D066191:Sensorimotor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012890:Sleep; D013028:Space Perception