The Magnitude Effect on Tactile Spatial Representation: The Spatial–Tactile Association for Response Code (STARC) Effect

The human brain uses perceptual information to create a correct representation of the external world. Converging data indicate that the perceptual processing of, space, and quantities frequently is based on a shared mental magnitude system, where low and high quantities are represented in the left a...

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Autores principales: Bollini, Alice, Campus, Claudio, Esposito, Davide, Gori, Monica
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7550691/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33132821
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.557063
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author Bollini, Alice
Campus, Claudio
Esposito, Davide
Gori, Monica
author_facet Bollini, Alice
Campus, Claudio
Esposito, Davide
Gori, Monica
author_sort Bollini, Alice
collection PubMed
description The human brain uses perceptual information to create a correct representation of the external world. Converging data indicate that the perceptual processing of, space, and quantities frequently is based on a shared mental magnitude system, where low and high quantities are represented in the left and right space, respectively. The present study explores how the magnitude affects spatial representation in the tactile modality. We investigated these processes using stimulus-response (S-R) compatibility tasks (i.e., sensorimotor tasks that present an association/dissociation between the perception of a stimulus and the required action, generally increasing/decreasing accuracy and decreasing/increasing reaction times of the subject). In our study, the participant performed a discrimination task between high- and low-frequency vibrotactile stimuli, regardless of the stimulation’s spatial position. When the response code was incompatible with the mental magnitude line (i.e., left button for high-frequency and right button for low-frequency responses), we found that the participants bypassed the spatial congruence, showing a magnitude S-R compatibility effect. We called this phenomenon the Spatial–Tactile Association of Response Codes (STARC) effect. Moreover, we observed that the internal frame of reference embodies the STARC effect. Indeed, the participants’ performance reversed between uncrossed- and crossed-hands posture, suggesting that spatial reference frames play a role in the process of expressing mental magnitude, at least in terms of the tactile modality.
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spelling pubmed-75506912020-10-29 The Magnitude Effect on Tactile Spatial Representation: The Spatial–Tactile Association for Response Code (STARC) Effect Bollini, Alice Campus, Claudio Esposito, Davide Gori, Monica Front Neurosci Neuroscience The human brain uses perceptual information to create a correct representation of the external world. Converging data indicate that the perceptual processing of, space, and quantities frequently is based on a shared mental magnitude system, where low and high quantities are represented in the left and right space, respectively. The present study explores how the magnitude affects spatial representation in the tactile modality. We investigated these processes using stimulus-response (S-R) compatibility tasks (i.e., sensorimotor tasks that present an association/dissociation between the perception of a stimulus and the required action, generally increasing/decreasing accuracy and decreasing/increasing reaction times of the subject). In our study, the participant performed a discrimination task between high- and low-frequency vibrotactile stimuli, regardless of the stimulation’s spatial position. When the response code was incompatible with the mental magnitude line (i.e., left button for high-frequency and right button for low-frequency responses), we found that the participants bypassed the spatial congruence, showing a magnitude S-R compatibility effect. We called this phenomenon the Spatial–Tactile Association of Response Codes (STARC) effect. Moreover, we observed that the internal frame of reference embodies the STARC effect. Indeed, the participants’ performance reversed between uncrossed- and crossed-hands posture, suggesting that spatial reference frames play a role in the process of expressing mental magnitude, at least in terms of the tactile modality. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-09-29 /pmc/articles/PMC7550691/ /pubmed/33132821 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.557063 Text en Copyright © 2020 Bollini, Campus, Esposito and Gori. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Bollini, Alice
Campus, Claudio
Esposito, Davide
Gori, Monica
The Magnitude Effect on Tactile Spatial Representation: The Spatial–Tactile Association for Response Code (STARC) Effect
title The Magnitude Effect on Tactile Spatial Representation: The Spatial–Tactile Association for Response Code (STARC) Effect
title_full The Magnitude Effect on Tactile Spatial Representation: The Spatial–Tactile Association for Response Code (STARC) Effect
title_fullStr The Magnitude Effect on Tactile Spatial Representation: The Spatial–Tactile Association for Response Code (STARC) Effect
title_full_unstemmed The Magnitude Effect on Tactile Spatial Representation: The Spatial–Tactile Association for Response Code (STARC) Effect
title_short The Magnitude Effect on Tactile Spatial Representation: The Spatial–Tactile Association for Response Code (STARC) Effect
title_sort magnitude effect on tactile spatial representation: the spatial–tactile association for response code (starc) effect
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7550691/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33132821
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.557063
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