Authors: Mikio Tsuge Masahiko Izumizaki Kazuyoshi Kigawa Takashi Atsumi Ikuo Homma
Publish Date: 2012/10/02
Volume: 223, Issue: 4, Pages: 541-551
Abstract
We studied the influence of false proprioceptive information generated by arm vibration and false visual information provided by a mirror in which subjects saw a reflection of another arm on perception of arm position in a forearm positionmatching task in righthanded subjects n = 17 The mirror was placed between left and right arms and arranged so that the reflected left arm appeared to the subjects to be their unseen right reference arm The felt position of the right arm indicated with a paddle was influenced by vision of the mirror image of the left arm If the left arm appeared flexed in the mirror subjects felt their right arm to be more flexed than it was Conversely if the left arm was extended they felt their right arm to be more extended than it was When reference elbow flexors were vibrated at 70–80 Hz an illusion of extension of the vibrated arm was elicited The illusion of a more flexed reference arm evoked by seeing a mirror image of the flexed left arm was reduced by vibration However the illusion of extension of the right arm evoked by seeing a mirror image of the extended left arm was increased by vibration That is when the mirror and vibration illusions were in the same direction they reinforced each other However when they were in opposite directions they tended to cancel one another The present study shows the interaction between proprioceptive and visual information in perception of arm position
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