Cite as:
Watanabe J, Amemiya T, Nishida S, Johnston A, 2008, "Independent local adaptation of tactile frequency and duration" Perception 37 ECVP Abstract Supplement, page 87

Independent local adaptation of tactile frequency and duration

J Watanabe, T Amemiya, S Nishida, A Johnston

A variety of temporal illusions have been reported in visual perception studies within several hundreds milliseconds, which is an essential range in sensorimotor processing. Although previous physiological studies indicate similarities between information encoding in visual and tactile sensations, we know little about tactile temporal perception. In this presentation, we show a similar illusory change of perceived frequency and duration in the tactile sensation to that shown in vision (Johnston et al, 2006 Current Biology 16 472 - 479). After a 35 Hz vibration was presented to one finger for 20 s, a test 25 Hz vibration was presented for 1 s to the adapted finger. The perceived frequency or duration of the test vibration was compared with one of a probe vibration presented to the unadapted finger, whose duration was 1 s, when frequency was varied or whose frequency was 25 Hz, when duration was varied. The 25 Hz vibration were perceived as reduced to 20 Hz in frequency and to 900 ms in duration. These results suggest that tactile frequency and timing events are independently encoded in the local somatosensory areas.

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