Phantom Tactile Sensations Modulated by Body Position

Bilateral activation of somatosensory areas after unilateral stimulation is assumed to be mediated by crosshemispheric connections. Despite evidence of bilateral activity in response to unilateral stimulation, neurologically intact humans do not experience bilateral percepts when stimulated on one side of the body. This may be due to active suppression of ipsilateral neural activity by inhibitory mechanisms whose functioning is poorly understood. We describe an individual with left fronto-parietal damage who experiences bilateral sensations in response to unilateral tactile stimulation-a rarely reported condition known as synchiria (previously described in visual, auditory, and somatosensory modalities). Presumably, the phantom sensations result from normal bilateral crosshemispheric activation, combined with a failure of inhibitory mechanisms to prevent bilateral perceptual experiences. Disruption of these mechanisms provides a valuable opportunity to examine their internal functioning. We find that the synchiria rate is affected by hand position relative to multiple reference frames. Specifically, synchiria decreases as the hands move from right (contralesional) to left (ipsilesional) space in trunk- and head-centered reference frames and disappears when the hands are crossed. These findings provide novel evidence that mechanisms that inhibit bilateral percepts operate in multiple reference frames.