FBS Colloquia No.258Dynamic Brain Network Laboratory

What underlies a better tactile temporal resolution and spatial perception?

Our brain can determine the temporal-order of two tactile stimuli that are delivered one to each hand within a short time gap, as short as tens of milliseconds. When we cross our hands, determining the temporal order becomes extremely difficult, to an extent that we struggle in the temporal-order perception of a long time gap of hundreds of milliseconds. This is because, when the hands are crossed, spatial perception is essential, preceding the temporal perception.
In this study, we asked participants to do tactile temporal order judgment tasks in the crossed and uncrossed hand postures and also acquired their brain structural MRI images. By analyzing the data, we uncovered what brain structure makes someone possess a better tactile temporal resolution (i.e. better performance in the uncrossed posture) and better spatial perception (i.e. better performance in the crossed posture).