Effects of spatial consistency and individual difference on touch-induced visual suppression effect

Souta Hidaka,Yosuke Suzuishi,Makoto Wada,Masakazu Ide

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-35302-w

Abstract

Crossmodal studies have reported not only facilitatory but also inhibitory perceptual interactions. For instance, tactile stimulation to the index finger of a hand leads to the degradation of visual discrimination performance (touch-induced visual suppression, TIVS). It has been suggested that the magnitude of TIVS depends on the spatial congruency of visuo-tactile stimuli and on individual differences in task performance. We performed a detailed investigation of the effects of spatial consistency and individual differences on the occurrence of TIVS. The visual target and tactile stimulus were presented at co-localized, ipsilateral but not co-localized, or contralateral positions. The degree of autistic traits has been reported to be well variable among the general population and to reflect differences in sensory processing. Therefore, we assessed the magnitude of autistic traits using the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) as an index of individual differences. TIVS occurred particularly at the ipsilateral but not co-localized position. In contrast, the magnitude of the TIVS was positively correlated with the AQ score when the stimuli were presented at the co-localized position. These findings suggest that the occurrence of TIVS can be modulated both by the spatial relationship between the visual and tactile stimuli and by individual differences in autistic traits.

Highlights

Our perceptual systems integrate crossmodal inputs in order to establish coherent and robust perceptions of our surrounding environment[1]
We considered that autistic traits estimated by autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) could be a reliable measurement to investigate individual differences in the visuo-tactile interactions underlying TIVS
The current study investigated the effects of spatial consistency on the occurrence of TIVS, using the measurement of autistic traits as an index of individual differences

Summary

Introduction

Our perceptual systems integrate crossmodal inputs in order to establish coherent and robust perceptions of our surrounding environment[1]. Activation in the right anterior superior temporal region, including the secondary somatosensory cortical area, was more strongly related to the inhibitory responses in the visual cortex (V1 and V2) for the participants with greater TIVS magnitudes These findings suggest that TIVS occurs at the perceptual processing stage, and that inhibitory neural modulations, from the somatosensory to the visual cortices, are involved in the occurrence of TIVS. The spatial congruency aspect of TIVS was demonstrated such that the discrimination performance of the visual target presented on the left side of a display relative to a fixation point was degraded when the tactile stimulus was presented to the index finger of the participant’s left hand[15] In this situation, the stimuli were presented at an ipsilateral position, but spatially separated (>25 cm). It is necessary to further investigate whether the TIVS occurs when the visual target and the tactile stimulus are presented at a co-localized position

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Conclusion