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Thinking about touch facilitates tactile but not auditory processing

DOI: 10.1007/s00221-012-3020-0
Anema, H. A., de Haan, A. M., Gebuis, T., & Dijkerman, H. C. (2012). Thinking about touch facilitates tactile but not auditory processing. Experimental Brain Research, 218(3), 373–380. doi:10.1007/s00221-012-3020-0

Abstract

Mental imagery is considered to be important for normal conscious experience. It is most frequently investigated in the visual, auditory and motor domain (imagination of movement), while the studies on tactile imagery (imagination of touch) are scarce. The current study investigated the effect of tactile and auditory imagery on the left/right discriminations of tactile and auditory stimuli. In line with our hypothesis, we observed that after tactile imagery, tactile stimuli were responded to faster as compared to auditory stimuli and vice versa. On average, tactile stimuli were responded to faster as compared to auditory stimuli, and stimuli in the imagery condition were on average responded to slower as compared to baseline performance (left/right discrimination without imagery assignment). The former is probably due to the spatial and somatotopic proximity of the fingers receiving the taps and the thumbs performing the response (button press), the latter to a dual task cost. Together, these results provide the first evidence of a behavioural effect of a tactile imagery assignment on the perception of real tactile stimuli.

Authors

  • Helen A. Anema1
  • Alyanne M. de Haan1
  • Titia Gebuis1
  • H. Chris Dijkerman1

What This Study Is About

Researchers wanted to know if "warming up" your brain by imagining a specific sensation—like the feel of rough gravel or the sound of jingling keys—helps you react faster when you experience that sensation in real life.

How They Studied It

The study involved 15 participants. First, they looked at pictures of objects that have distinct sounds and textures, like Legos, marbles, or bunches of keys.
Participants were asked to perform two different "mental imagery" tasks (the ability to "re-create" sensations in your mind):
1. Tactile Imagery: Imagining how the object in the picture would feel against their skin.
2. Auditory Imagery: Imagining what sound the object would make.
While they were busy imagining, the researchers would suddenly give them a real-world stimulus: either a small "tap" on their finger or a "beep" in their ear. The participants had to quickly hit a button to show which side (left or right) the sensation came from.

What They Found

The researchers discovered that our minds work best when our imagination matches reality.
  • The Match Effect: If a person was imagining a touch and then felt a real tap, they were significantly faster at reacting. The same happened with sound; imagining a noise made them quicker to hear a real beep.
  • The Switch Cost: If they were imagining a sound but felt a tap instead, they were slower. It’s like your brain was "tuned" to the wrong radio station and had to quickly switch frequencies to process the new information.
  • Thinking is Hard: Interestingly, everyone was slower during the imagery tasks than they were at baseline (when they weren't imagining anything). This shows that using your "mental monitor" takes up a lot of brainpower!

What This Might Mean

This suggests that imagining a sensation uses the exact same "wiring" in the brain as actually feeling it. For someone with aphantasia—the inability to create these mental "pictures" or sensations—this research is a clue. If people with aphantasia don't have this "mental warm-up" happening, their brains might process incoming sights, sounds, or touches differently.
However, we have to be careful: this was a very small study with only 15 people, so it suggests a pattern rather than proving it for everyone.

One Interesting Detail

The researchers found that the more "vivid" or clear a person rated their mental image, the faster they were able to generate it. If you can "feel" that imaginary Lego brick clearly, your brain is already halfway to feeling a real one!
This summary was generated by AI and may contain errors. Always refer to the original paper for accuracy.