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    A three-dimensional spatial characterization of the crossed-hands deficit

    Azanon Gracia, Elena and Mihaljevic, K. and Longo, Matthew R. (2016) A three-dimensional spatial characterization of the crossed-hands deficit. Cognition 157 , pp. 289-295. ISSN 0010-0277.

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    Abstract

    To perceive the location of touch in space, we integrate information about skin-location with information about the location of that body part in space. Most research investigating this process of tactile spatial remapping has used the so-called crossed-hands deficit, in which the ability to judge the temporal order of touches on the two hands is impaired when the arms are crossed. This posture induces a conflict between skin-based and tactile external spatial representations, specifically in the left-right dimension. Thus, it is unknown whether touch is affected by posture when spatial relations other than the right-left dimension are available. Here, we tested the extent to which the crossed-hands deficit is a measure of tactile remapping, reflecting tactile encoding in continuous three-dimensional space. Participants judged the temporal order of tactile stimuli presented to crossed and uncrossed hands. The arms were placed at different elevations (up-down dimension; Experiments 1 and 2), or at different distances from the body in the depth plane (near-far dimension; Experiment 3). The crossed-hands deficit was reduced when other sources of spatial information, orthogonal to the left-right dimension, were available. Nonetheless, the deficit persisted in all conditions, even when processing of non-conflicting information was enough to solve the task. Together, these results demonstrate that the processing underlying the crossed-hands deficit is related to the encoding of tactile localization in three-dimensional space, rather than related uniquely to the cost of processing information in the right-left dimension. Furthermore, the persistence of the crossing effect provides evidence for automatic integration of all available information, regardless of whether or not it is conflicting.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Crossed-hands deficit, Spatial frames of reference, Tactile spatial localization, Temporal order judgements, Three-dimensional space
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
    Research Centres and Institutes: Brain and Cognitive Development, Centre for (CBCD)
    Depositing User: Matthew Longo
    Date Deposited: 07 Oct 2016 14:09
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:25
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/15875

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