Kinesthesis Can Make an Invisible Hand Visible

Abstract

Self-generated body movements have reliable visual consequences. This predictive association between vision and action likely underlies modulatory effects of action on visual processing. However, it is unknown if our own actions can have generative effects on visual perception. We asked whether, in total darkness, self-generated body movements are sufficient to evoke normally concomitant visual perceptions. Using a deceptive experimental design, we discovered that waving one’s own hand in front of one’s covered eyes can cause visual sensations of motion. Conjecturing that these visual sensations arise from multisensory connectivity, we showed that individuals with synesthesia experience substantially stronger kinesthesis-induced visual sensations. Finally, we found that the perceived vividness of kinesthesis-induced visual sensations predicted participants’ ability to smoothly eye-track self-generated hand movements in darkness, indicating that these sensations function like typical retinally-driven visual sensations. Evidently, even in the complete absence of external visual input, our brains predict visual consequences of our actions.

Cognition does not affect perception: Evaluating the evidence for “top-down” effects

“…Such reappearances increase objective sensitivity for visual features of the flash (Berger et al 2003) and are linked to individual structure and function of primary visual cortex (de Haas et al 2012;Watkins et al 2006). Waving one's hand in front of the eyes can induce visual sensations and enable smooth pursuit eye movements, even in complete darkness (Dieter et al 2014). The duration of sounds can bias the perceived duration of concurrent visual stimuli (Romei et al 2011), and sensitivity for a brief flash increases parametrically with the duration of a co-occurring sound (de Haas et al 2013a).…”

“…Though the most prominent crossmodal effects are from vision to other senses (e.g., from vision to audition; McGurk & MacDonald 1976), de Haas et al and Esenkaya & Proulx pointed to examples of other sense modalities affecting vision as evidence for cognitive penetrability. For example, a single flash of light can appear to flicker when accompanied by multiple auditory beeps (Shams et al 2000), and waving one's hand in front of one's face while blindfolded can produce illusory motion (Dieter et al 2014). Are these top-down effects of cognition on perception?…”

A New Neurocognitive Interpretation of Shoulder Position Sense during Reaching: Unexpected Competence in the Measurement of Extracorporeal Space

“…Kinesthesis, strictly meaning movement sense, can make “ an invisible hand visible, ” as some researchers have written, such that, even in the absence of external visual input, the brain can predict the visual consequences of actions [37]. …”

Birth and death of a phantom

“…Motor, proprioceptive and visual information of arm position normally converge and are supported by a common coding, explaining for instance that one's active arm movements seem to be “visible” in complete darkness,17 that damage to the premotor cortex can lead to the visual disappearance of a hand,18 and that experimentally induced multimodal conflicts can create illusory ownership of virtual or artificial limbs 19. Moreover, illusions induced by tendon vibration at the biceps, especially when a feeling of contraction is willfully resisted, can induce the feeling that the arm is breaking, bending, curving or, indeed, create “double or multiple images” of the forearm 20.…”