Attention Affects Visual Perceptual Processing Near the Hand

Psychological Science · 2010 · Volume 21 · Issue 9

Abstract

Specialized, bimodal neural systems integrate visual and tactile information in the space near the hand. Here, we show that visuo-tactile representations allow attention to influence early perceptual processing, namely, figure-ground assignment. Regions that were reached toward were more likely than other regions to be assigned as foreground figures, and hand position competed with image-based information to bias figure-ground assignment. Our findings suggest that hand position allows attention to influence visual perceptual processing and that visual processes typically viewed as unimodal can be influenced by bimodal visuo-tactile representations.

Keywords

attention, figure-ground, proprioception, bimodal cells, action, cross-modal

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