Research library

Thinking about touch facilitates tactile but not auditory processing

Anema and colleagues · Experimental Brain Research

Fifteen young adults imagined the feel or the sound of objects shown in pictures, then pressed a button as fast as they could to show whether a tap on a finger or a beep in an ear came from the left or right. Taps were answered faster after imagining touch than after imagining sound, and beeps faster after imagining sound than after imagining touch. Imagining slowed responses overall, so the benefit was relative: imagery slowed people less when it matched the sense being tested. The authors explain this mainly as the cost of shifting attention between senses.