Vibration on the soles of the feet evoking a sensation of walking expands peripersonal space

Processing of audio-tactile multisensory stimuli presented within the space immediately surrounding our body, i.e., peripersonal space (PPS), is known to be facilitated and the boundaries of the PPS extended by body action such as walking. However, it is unclear whether the boundaries change when a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in2017 IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC) pp. 605 - 610
Main Authors Amemiya, Tomohiro, Ikei, Yasushi, Hirota, Koichi, Kitazaki, Michiteru
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 01.06.2017
Subjects
Foot
Haptic interfaces
Headphones
Keyboards
Laboratories
Legged locomotion
Vibrations
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Summary:Processing of audio-tactile multisensory stimuli presented within the space immediately surrounding our body, i.e., peripersonal space (PPS), is known to be facilitated and the boundaries of the PPS extended by body action such as walking. However, it is unclear whether the boundaries change when a sensation of walking is induced with no physical body motion. Here, we presented several vibration patterns on the soles of the feet of seated participants to evoke a sensation of walking and examined the change in reaction times to detect a vibrotactile stimulus on the chest while listening to a looming sound approaching the body, which was taken as a behavioral proxy for the PPS boundary. Results revealed that a cyclic vibration consisting of lowpass-filtered walking sounds presented at the soles that clearly evoked a sensation of walking decreased the reaction times, indicating that the PPS boundary was expanded forward by inducing a sensation of walking.
DOI:10.1109/WHC.2017.7989907