INVESTIGATION OF AN ADAPTATION-INDUCED TACTILE SPATIAL ILLUSION

Sensory adaptation is an important aspect of perception. A seemingly non-beneficial consequence of adaptation is that it produces perceptual illusions. For instance, following focal adaptation, the perceived separation between stimuli straddling the adapted attribute or region is often exaggerated. This type of illusion, known as perceptual repulsion, is both a consequence of and a clue to the brain’s coding strategies and how they are influenced by recent sensory events. Adaptation-induced perceptual repulsion has been well documented in vision (e.g. the tilt aftereffect) and to a lesser extent in audition, but rarely studied in touch. The present thesis investigated the effects of adaptation on tactile spatial perception using a combination of human psychophysics and computational modeling. In a two-interval forced choice task, participants compared the perceived separation between two point-stimuli applied on the forearms successively. The point of subjective equality was extracted as a measure of perceived two-point distance. We showed that tactile spatial perception is subject to an adaptation-induced repulsion illusion: vibrotactile adaptation focally reduced tactile sensitivity and significantly increased the perceived distance between points straddling the adapted skin site (Chapter 2). This repulsion illusion, however, was not observed when the intervening skin was desensitized with topical anesthesia instead of vibrotactile adaptation, suggesting that peripheral desensitization alone is insufficient to induce the illusion (Chapter 3). With Bayesian perceptual modeling, we showed that the illusion was consistent with the hypothesis that the brain decodes tactile spatial input without awareness of the adaptation state in the nervous system (Chapter 4). Together, the empirical and theoretical work furthers the understanding of dynamic tactile spatial coding as the somatosensory system adapts to the sensory environment. Its main findings are consistent with the adaptation- induced repulsion illusions reported in vision and audition, suggesting that perception in different sensory modalities shares common processing features and computational principles. Thesis Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Sensory adaptation can shape how we perceive the world. In this thesis, we showed that the perception of space in touch is pliable and subject to the influence of adaptation. Psychophysical testing in human participants showed that vibratory adaptation induced an illusion that expanded the perceived distance between stimuli on the skin. This illusion provides clues into how information about space in touch is normally processed and interpreted by the brain. In addition, we developed a computational model that used a powerful statistical framework – Bayesian inference – to probe touch on a theoretical basis. To the best of our knowledge, the present thesis provides the first combined psychophysical and computational study on the effects of adaptation on tactile spatial perception. Our findings suggest that touch shares some common information processing principles with vision and hearing, and adaptation plays a functionally similar role in mediating this process across the senses.