When we move, our ability to detect tactile events on the moving limb is reduced (e.g., movement-related tactile suppression). This process prevents unimportant sensory information from bombarding our central nervous system. This study investigated whether movement-related suppression can be modulated according to task relevance, while introducing a novel motor-driven complex upper limb movement. In three experiments, participants performed volitional self-driven and passive motor-driven reaching and grasping movements. Over the course of the movement, weak electrical stimulation was presented at task-relevant (i.e., index finger) and irrelevant sites (i.e., forearm) on the moving limb. In Experiment 1, participants displayed reduced detectability during movement (90% resting detection). This was true for all locations on the moving limb irrespective of task-relevance and during both self and motor-driven movements. In Experiments 2 and 3 a range of stimulus amplitudes were presented to one task-relevant location during both self and motor-driven movements (Experiment 2A), to a task-relevant and irrelevant site (Experiment 2B) and during a targeted and pantomime/no target reach (Experiment 3). This allowed us to estimate perceptual thresholds and assess the magnitude of movement-related suppression. During both self and motor-driven movements participants exhibited movement-related suppression. Suppression was greater at the irrelevant site (forearm) than at the relevant site (index finger) of the limb. Further, the magnitude of suppression varied with task relevance such that pantomime movements elicited more suppression than targeted movements. Collectively, these experiments suggest that although tactile suppression may be a general consequence of movement, suppression can be modulated in a relevance-dependent manner.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2017.11.024 | DOI Listing |
Ear Hear
December 2024
Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
Objectives: Identifying target sounds in challenging environments is crucial for daily experiences. It is important to note that it can be enhanced by nonauditory stimuli, for example, through lip-reading in an ongoing conversation. However, how tactile stimuli affect auditory processing is still relatively unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Neurosci
November 2024
Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
Unlabelled: Limb amputation results in such devastating consequences as loss of motor and sensory functions and phantom limb pain (PLP). Neurostimulation-based approaches have been developed to treat this condition, which provide artificial somatosensory feedback such as peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS), spinal cord stimulation (SCS), and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). Yet, the effectiveness of different neurostimulation methods has been rarely tested in the same participants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBehav Brain Res
December 2024
School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, 200 Lees Ave, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada. Electronic address:
The ability to perceive a tactile stimulus is reduced in a moving limb, a phenomenon known as tactile suppression. This sensory attenuation effect is attributed to movement-related gating, which allows the central nervous system to selectively process sensory information. However, the source of this gating is uncertain, with some evidence suggesting a forward-model origin of tactile suppression, and other evidence in support of backward masking from peripheral reafference.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychophysiology
November 2024
Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
This study investigates the proposed mechanism of mindfulness, its impact on body awareness and interoception, and its potential benefits for mental and physical health. Using psychophysical assessments, we compared 31 expert meditators with 33 matched controls (non-meditators who engage in regular reading, more than 5 h per week) in terms of somatosensory accuracy with a somatosensory signal detection task (SSDT) and interoceptive sensibility via self-report measures. We hypothesized that meditators would demonstrate superior somatosensory accuracy, indicative of heightened body awareness, potentially linked to increased alpha modulation in the somatosensory cortex, as observed via electroencephalography (EEG).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPharmacol Rep
December 2024
Department of Pain Pharmacology, Maj Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Smętna 12, Kraków, 31-343, Poland.
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