TY - JOUR
T1 - When temporal certainty doesn’t help
AU - Kusnir, Flor
AU - Pesin, Slav
AU - Moscona, Gal
AU - Landau, Ayelet N.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - In a dynamically changing environment, the ability to capture regularities in our sensory input helps us generate predictions about future events. In most sensory systems, the basic finding is clear: Knowing when something will happen improves performance on it [Nobre, A. C., & van Ede, F. (2017). Anticipated moments: Temporal structure in attention. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 19, 34–48, 2017]. We here examined the impact of temporal predictions on a less-explored modality: touch. Participants were instructed to detect a brief target embedded in an ongoing vibrotactile stimulus. Unbeknownst to them, the experiment had two timing conditions: In one part, the time of target onset was fixed and thus temporally predictable, whereas in the other, it could appear at a random time within the ongoing stimulation. We found a clear modulation of detection thresholds due to temporal predictability: Contrary to other sensory systems, detecting a predictable tactile target was worse relative to unpredictable targets. We discuss our findings within the framework of tactile suppression.
AB - In a dynamically changing environment, the ability to capture regularities in our sensory input helps us generate predictions about future events. In most sensory systems, the basic finding is clear: Knowing when something will happen improves performance on it [Nobre, A. C., & van Ede, F. (2017). Anticipated moments: Temporal structure in attention. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 19, 34–48, 2017]. We here examined the impact of temporal predictions on a less-explored modality: touch. Participants were instructed to detect a brief target embedded in an ongoing vibrotactile stimulus. Unbeknownst to them, the experiment had two timing conditions: In one part, the time of target onset was fixed and thus temporally predictable, whereas in the other, it could appear at a random time within the ongoing stimulation. We found a clear modulation of detection thresholds due to temporal predictability: Contrary to other sensory systems, detecting a predictable tactile target was worse relative to unpredictable targets. We discuss our findings within the framework of tactile suppression.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85077404284&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1162/jocn_a_01482
DO - 10.1162/jocn_a_01482
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C2 - 31633463
AN - SCOPUS:85077404284
SN - 0898-929X
VL - 32
SP - 315
EP - 325
JO - Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
JF - Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
IS - 2
ER -