A shared numerical representation for action and perception

• Published in: eLife Vol. 5
• Main Authors: Anobile, Giovanni, Arrighi, Roberto, Togoli, Irene, Burr, David Charles
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England eLife Science Publications, Ltd 09.08.2016; eLife Sciences Publications Ltd; eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
• Subjects: Adaptation; Adult; approximate number system; Arrays; Clouds; cross modal adaptation; cross modal perception; Humans; Motor task performance; Neural circuitry; Neuroscience; Neurosciences; numerosity adaptation; numerosity perception; Perception; Perceptions; Physiological aspects; Senses; Thinking; Touch Perception; Visual Perception; Visual stimuli; numerosity adaptation; numerosity perception; approximate number system; neuroscience; human; cross modal adaptation; cross modal perception
• ISSN: 2050-084X; 2050-084X
• DOI: 10.7554/elife.16161

Humans and other species have perceptual mechanisms dedicated to estimating approximate quantity: a sense of number. Here we show a clear interaction between self-produced actions and the perceived numerosity of subsequent visual stimuli. A short period of rapid finger-tapping (without sensory feedback) caused subjects to underestimate the number of visual stimuli presented near the tapping region; and a period of slow tapping caused overestimation. The distortions occurred both for stimuli presented sequentially (series of flashes) and simultaneously (clouds of dots); both for magnitude estimation and forced-choice comparison. The adaptation was spatially selective, primarily in external, real-world coordinates. Our results sit well with studies reporting links between perception and action, showing that vision and action share mechanisms that encode numbers: a generalized number sense, which estimates the number of self-generated as well as external events.