Visuotactile correlation increases the integration of visual body-related effects into action representation.

Abstract

Understanding how individuals represent their bodies in action is crucial for cognitive sciences. The theory of event coding suggests actions are coded by their perceptual effects. Yet the spatial representation of actions during simultaneous body-related effects is less understood. This study aimed to explore whether a correlation between visual and tactile effects could integrate visual information into action representations. Indeed, spatiotemporal correlation among sensory signals coming from various modalities is known to be a critical factor, especially in studies on body representations. We manipulated visual feedback by inverting it on the horizontal plane. The first group performed an induction task involving stroking a surface with a time lag between tactile and visual feedback (asynchronous group), while the second experienced no time lag (synchronous group). Participants then rated their subjective feeling of referral of touch (RoT) which corresponds to the perceived location of their index finger's tactile sensations. Subsequently, both groups completed the Simon task to assess spatial action coding. Results indicated no significant differences in RoT ratings between groups; however, the Simon task showed that the synchronous group coded responses based on the visual effects' locations, unlike the asynchronous group. Additionally, a correlation was observed between RoT ratings and the Simon task. These findings suggest that when multiple body-related action effects compete, visual effects may prevail if there is a temporal correlation between visual and tactile effects. These findings underscore the importance of spatiotemporal correlations in coding actions and support the linkage between action and body representation processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).