VISION INFLUENCES TACTILE PERCEPTION WITHOUT PROPRIOCEPTIVE ORIENTING

THE perception of tactile stimuli is facilitated when subjects look to wards the stimulated body site: this facilitation even takes place whe n visual information is unavailable, as when orienting in the dark. It is not known whether the facilitation is due entirely to such proprio ceptive orienting of eye and head, or whether visual information of th e body site can also facilitate touch. An experiment is reported which dissociates vision and proprioception, and demonstrates for the first time that vision of a body part, independent of proprioceptive orient ing, can indeed effect somatosensation. (C) 1998 Rapid Science Ltd.