When observers view ambiguous visual stimuli, their perception will often alternate between the possible interpretations, a phenomenon termed " perceptual rivalry " [1]. To induce perceptual rivalry in the tactile domain, we developed a new tactile illusion, based on the visual apparent motion " quartet " [2]. Pairs of 200 ms vibrotactile stimuli were applied to the finger pad at intervals sepa...

Following focal sensory adaptation, the perceived separation between visual stimuli that straddle the adapted region is often exaggerated. For instance, in the tilt aftereffect illusion, adaptation to tilted lines causes subsequently viewed lines with nearby orientations to be perceptually repelled from the adapted orientation. Repulsion illusions in the nonvisual senses have been less studied....

Our capacity to share the experiences of others is a critical part of social behaviour. One process thought to be important for this is vicarious perception. Passively viewing touch activates some of the same network of brain regions as the direct experience of touch. This vicarious experience is usually implicit, but for some people, viewing touch evokes conscious tactile sensations (mirror-to...

INTRODUCTION Impaired somatosensation is common in older adults and contributes to age-related loss of mobility function. However, little is known about whether somatosensation at different sites on the plantar surface of the foot are differentially related to mobility function. Such a finding may have important implications for clinical care of older adults and other at-risk populations, such ...

Recently Sekuler et al. (Nature, 1997) investigated the motion-bounce illusion and found that sound can influence ambiguous visual motion perception. Here we investigated the motion-bounce illusion in the tactile-auditory domain. Using a vibro-tactile belt consisting of 7 vibrators we generated tactile apparent motion stimuli by sequentially activating neighboring motors with an onset of 200ms ...

The tactile surface forms a continuous sheet covering the body. And yet, the perceived distance between two touches varies across stimulation sites. Perceived tactile distance is larger when stimuli cross over the wrist, compared to when both fall on either the hand or the forearm. This effect could reflect a categorical distortion of tactile space across body-part boundaries (in which stimuli ...

This paper lays emphasis on research that gives an insight to the auditory-tactile perception in electronic musical instruments (here, electronic violin) stating that most traditional musical instruments inherently convey tactile feedback to the performer along with the auditory feedback which leads to a tight performer-instrument relationship which is not found in electronic musical instrument...

Haptic visualization is a key aid in presenting real or simulated data to individuals who are blind in a form that is suitable for comprehension. Conventional techniques in haptic visualization convert complex multidimensional data into a visual form such as points, lines, graphs etc. and subsequently add haptic features such as friction and texture to the rendered form. This allows individuals...

Emotions and sensory perceptions are closely intertwined. Of the five senses, sight has been by far the most extensively studied sense in emotion research. Relatively less is known about how emotions influence the other four senses. Touch is essential for nonverbal communication in both humans and other animals. The current investigation tested competing hypotheses about the effect of fear on t...

The reproduced tactile sensation of haptic interfaces usually selectively reproduces a certain object attribute, such as the object's material reflected by vibration and its surface shape by a pneumatic nozzle array. Tactile biomechanics investigates the relation between responses to an external load stimulus and tactile perception and guides the design of haptic interface devices via a tactile...