Visual Capture of Touch: Out-of-the-Body Experiences With Rubber Gloves

TLDR

Vision can dominate proprioception and kinesthesia when the apparent visual location of a body part conflicts with its true location. The study demonstrates that vision can capture tactile localization. Participants discriminated vibrotactile stimuli on the index finger versus the thumb while ignoring distractor lights that could appear upper or lower, with the hands occluded under a table and the lights positioned above. Tactile discrimination was slower when incongruent lights appeared near the hand, an effect amplified by aligned rubber hands that induced a stronger illusion of touch at the rubber hands, indicating that visual capture of touch is cognitively impenetrable.

Abstract

When the apparent visual location of a body part conflicts with its veridical location, vision can dominate proprioception and kinesthesia. In this article, we show that vision can capture tactile localization. Participants discriminated the location of vibrotactile stimuli (upper, at the index finger, vs. lower, at the thumb), while ignoring distractor lights that could independently be upper or lower. Such tactile discriminations were slowed when the distractor light was incongruent with the tactile target (e.g., an upper light during lower touch) rather than congruent, especially when the lights appeared near the stimulated hand. The hands were occluded under a table, with all distractor lights above the table. The effect of the distractor lights increased when rubber hands were placed on the table, "holding" the distractor lights, but only when the rubber hands were spatially aligned with the participant's own hands. In this aligned situation, participants were more likely to report the illusion of feeling touch at the rubber hands. Such visual capture of touch appears cognitively impenetrable.