No evidence of tactile distance anisotropy on the belly

The perceived distance between two touches has been found to be larger for pairs of stimuli oriented across the width of the body than along the length of the body, for several body parts. Nevertheless, the magnitude of such biases varies from place to place, suggesting systematically different dist...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Matthew R. Longo, Anamaria Lulciuc, Lenka Sotakova
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The Royal Society 2019-03-01
Series:Royal Society Open Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.180866
_version_ 1819026616337039360
author Matthew R. Longo
Anamaria Lulciuc
Lenka Sotakova
author_facet Matthew R. Longo
Anamaria Lulciuc
Lenka Sotakova
author_sort Matthew R. Longo
collection DOAJ
description The perceived distance between two touches has been found to be larger for pairs of stimuli oriented across the width of the body than along the length of the body, for several body parts. Nevertheless, the magnitude of such biases varies from place to place, suggesting systematically different distortions of tactile space across the body. Several recent studies have investigated perceived tactile distance on the belly as an implicit measure of body perception in clinical conditions including anorexia nervosa and obesity. In this study, we investigated whether there is an anisotropy of perceived tactile distance on the belly in a sample of adult women. Participants made verbal estimates of the perceived distance between pairs of touches oriented either across body width or along body length on the belly and the dorsum of the left hand. Consistent with previous results, a large anisotropy was apparent on the hand, with across stimuli perceived as larger than along stimuli. In contrast, no such bias was apparent on the belly. These results provide further evidence that anisotropies of perceived tactile distance vary systematically across the body and suggest that there is no anisotropy at all on the belly in healthy women.
first_indexed 2024-12-21T05:29:24Z
format Article
id doaj.art-35f88578dac24a4fbc190400ee36ff57
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2054-5703
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-21T05:29:24Z
publishDate 2019-03-01
publisher The Royal Society
record_format Article
series Royal Society Open Science
spelling doaj.art-35f88578dac24a4fbc190400ee36ff572022-12-21T19:14:34ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032019-03-016310.1098/rsos.180866180866No evidence of tactile distance anisotropy on the bellyMatthew R. LongoAnamaria LulciucLenka SotakovaThe perceived distance between two touches has been found to be larger for pairs of stimuli oriented across the width of the body than along the length of the body, for several body parts. Nevertheless, the magnitude of such biases varies from place to place, suggesting systematically different distortions of tactile space across the body. Several recent studies have investigated perceived tactile distance on the belly as an implicit measure of body perception in clinical conditions including anorexia nervosa and obesity. In this study, we investigated whether there is an anisotropy of perceived tactile distance on the belly in a sample of adult women. Participants made verbal estimates of the perceived distance between pairs of touches oriented either across body width or along body length on the belly and the dorsum of the left hand. Consistent with previous results, a large anisotropy was apparent on the hand, with across stimuli perceived as larger than along stimuli. In contrast, no such bias was apparent on the belly. These results provide further evidence that anisotropies of perceived tactile distance vary systematically across the body and suggest that there is no anisotropy at all on the belly in healthy women.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.180866touchsize perceptiontactile distance
spellingShingle Matthew R. Longo
Anamaria Lulciuc
Lenka Sotakova
No evidence of tactile distance anisotropy on the belly
Royal Society Open Science
touch
size perception
tactile distance
title No evidence of tactile distance anisotropy on the belly
title_full No evidence of tactile distance anisotropy on the belly
title_fullStr No evidence of tactile distance anisotropy on the belly
title_full_unstemmed No evidence of tactile distance anisotropy on the belly
title_short No evidence of tactile distance anisotropy on the belly
title_sort no evidence of tactile distance anisotropy on the belly
topic touch
size perception
tactile distance
url https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.180866
work_keys_str_mv AT matthewrlongo noevidenceoftactiledistanceanisotropyonthebelly
AT anamarialulciuc noevidenceoftactiledistanceanisotropyonthebelly
AT lenkasotakova noevidenceoftactiledistanceanisotropyonthebelly