Skin Stretch Modulates Tactile Distance Perception Without Central Correction Mechanisms

Tactile distance perception is influenced by stimulus orientation. On the hands or face, effects of orientation may originate from the mostly oval shape of receptive fields (RF) of which the long axis aligns with the proximodistal body axis. As tactile distance estimation relies on the number of RFs between stimuli, their alignment leads to a distortion of perception with distances being perceived as shorter in the proximodistal than the mediolateral body axis. It is however unknown, how physical manipulations such as skin stretch affect distance perception. Participants judged which of two distances aligned with the mediolateral or proximodistal axis on their dorsal dominant hand felt larger in two conditions: without physical manipulation and with proximodistal skin stretch. Distances were perceived shorter in proximodistal direction in both the nonstretch and the stretch condition, which was significantly pronounced in the stretch condition. Skin stretch led to perception of tactile distances as smaller, possibly related to the removal of afferent nerve endings and corresponding somatosensory RFs in the same external reference frame between the two touches. Though skin stretch is represented centrally, our results likely show that no correctional top-down mechanism corrects for skin stretch when estimating tactile distances. Public Significance Statement We show that skin stretch affects tactile distance perception on the back of the hand with tactile distances being perceived as shorter on stretched than on nonstretched skin. Most likely, no correctional top-down mechanism corrects for skin stretch when estimating tactile distances.

Automated summary

Tactile distance perception is influenced by stimulus orientation, and skin stretch can cause tactile distances to be perceived as shorter. It is currently unknown whether there is a corrective top-down mechanism in estimating tactile distances.