Dataset Information

Effects of Hand and Hemispace on Multisensory Integration of Hand Position and Visual Feedback.

ABSTRACT: The brain generally integrates a multitude of sensory signals to form a unified percept. Even in cursor control tasks, such as reaching while looking at rotated visual feedback on a monitor, visual information on cursor position and proprioceptive information on hand position are partially integrated (sensory coupling), resulting in mutual biases of the perceived positions of cursor and hand. Previous studies showed that the strength of sensory coupling (sum of the mutual biases) depends on the experience of kinematic correlations between hand movements and cursor motions, whereas the asymmetry of sensory coupling (difference between the biases) depends on the relative reliabilities (inverse of variability) of hand-position and cursor-position estimates (reliability rule). Furthermore, the precision of movement control and perception of hand position are known to differ between hands (left, right) and workspaces (ipsilateral, contralateral), and so does the experience of kinematic correlations from daily life activities. Thus, in the present study, we tested whether strength and asymmetry of sensory coupling for the endpoints of reaches in a cursor control task differ between the right and left hand and between ipsilateral and contralateral hemispace. No differences were found in the strength of sensory coupling between hands or between hemispaces. However, asymmetry of sensory coupling was less in ipsilateral than in contralateral hemispace: in ipsilateral hemispace, the bias of the perceived hand position was reduced, which was accompanied by a smaller variability of the estimates. The variability of position estimates of the dominant right hand was also less than for the non-dominant left hand, but this difference was not accompanied by a difference in the asymmetry of sensory coupling - a violation of the reliability rule, probably due a stronger influence of visual information on right-hand movements. According to these results, the long-term effects of the experienced kinematic correlation between hand movements and cursor motions on the strength of sensory coupling are generic and not specific for hemispaces or hands, whereas the effects of relative reliabilities on the asymmetry of sensory coupling are specific for hemispaces but not for hands.

SUBMITTER: Rand MK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6379332 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effects of Hand and Hemispace on Multisensory Integration of Hand Position and Visual Feedback.

Rand Miya K MK Heuer Herbert H

Frontiers in psychology 20190212

The brain generally integrates a multitude of sensory signals to form a unified percept. Even in cursor control tasks, such as reaching while looking at rotated visual feedback on a monitor, visual information on cursor position and proprioceptive information on hand position are partially integrated (sensory coupling), resulting in mutual biases of the perceived positions of cursor and hand. Previous studies showed that the strength of sensory coupling (sum of the mutual biases) depends on the ...[more]

PMID: 30809172

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Project description:Some recent papers by P. Lush and colleagues have argued that the rubber hand illusion (RHI), where participants can feel a rubber hand as their own under appropriate multisensory stimulation, may be caused mainly by hypnotic suggestibility and expectations (demand characteristics). These papers rely primarily on a study with 353 participants who took part in a RHI experiment carried out in a classical way with brush stroking. Participants experienced a synchronous condition where the rubber hand was seen to be touched in synchrony with touch felt on their corresponding hidden real hand, or the touches were applied asynchronously as a control. Each participant had a related measure of their hypnotisability on a scale known as the Sussex-Waterloo Scale of Hypnotisability (SWASH). The authors found a correlation between the questionnaire ratings of the RHI in the synchronous condition and the SWASH score. From this, they concluded that the RHI is largely driven by suggestibility and further proposed that suggestibility and expectations may even entirely explain the RHI. Here we examine their claims in a series of extensive new analyses of their data. We find that at every level of SWASH, the synchronous stimulation results in greater levels of the illusion than the asynchronous condition; moreover, proprioceptive drift is greater in the synchronous case at every level of SWASH. Thus, while the level of hypnotisability does modestly influence the subjective reports (higher SWASH is associated with somewhat higher illusion ratings), the major difference between the synchronous and asynchronous stimulation is always present. Furthermore, by including in the model the participants' expectancy ratings of how strongly they initially believed they would experience the RHI in the two conditions, we show that expectations had a very small effect on the illusion ratings; model comparisons further demonstrate that the multisensory condition is two-to-three-times as dominant as the other factors, with hypnotisability contributing modestly and expectations negligibly. Thus, although the results indicate that trait suggestibility may modulate the RHI, presumably through intersubject variations in top-down factors, the findings also suggest that the primary explanation for the RHI is as a multisensory bodily illusion.

Project description:Multisensory integration (MSI) is the integration by the brain of environmental information acquired through more than one sense. Accurate MSI has been shown to be a key component of successful aging and to be crucial for processes underlying activities of daily living (ADLs). Problems in MSI could prevent older adults (OA) to age in place and live independently. However, there is a need to know how to assess changes in MSI in individuals. This systematic review provides an overview of tests assessing the effect of age on MSI in the healthy elderly population (aged 60 years and older). A literature search was done in Scopus. Articles from the earliest records available to January 20, 2016, were eligible for inclusion if assessing effects of aging on MSI in the healthy elderly population compared to younger adults (YA). These articles were rated for risk of bias with the Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment. Out of 307 identified research articles, 49 articles were included for final review, describing 69 tests. The review indicated that OA maximize the use of multiple sources of information in comparison to YA (20 studies). In tasks that require more cognitive function, or when participants need to adapt rapidly to a situation, or when a dual task is added to the experiment, OA have problems selecting and integrating information properly as compared to YA (19 studies). Additionally, irrelevant or wrong information (i.e., distractors) has a greater impact on OA than on YA (21 studies). OA failing to weigh sensory information properly, has not been described in previous reviews. Anatomical changes (i.e., reduction of brain volume and differences of brain areas' recruitment) and information processing changes (i.e., general cognitive slowing, inverse effectiveness, larger time window of integration, deficits in attentional control and increased noise at baseline) can only partly explain the differences between OA and YA regarding MSI. Since we have an interest in successful aging and early detection of MSI issues in the elderly population, the identified tests form a good starting point to develop a clinically useful toolkit to assess MSI in healthy OA.

Dataset Information

Effects of Hand and Hemispace on Multisensory Integration of Hand Position and Visual Feedback.

Publications

Effects of Hand and Hemispace on Multisensory Integration of Hand Position and Visual Feedback.

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