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Fingertip illusions direct the mindHow the brain decodes pulling sensations 
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Feeling directional tactile pulls is important for everyday life, allowing us to feel the weight of an object or be guided by our partner during a dance. We wanted to know what type of brain activity gives rise to the pulling sensation, specifically if it was generated in the primary somatosensory cortex (SI; area responsible for early processing of touch) or parietal cortex (area responsible for spatial and orientation processing). We generated pulling sensations via asymmetric vibration from a hand held device and recorded brain activity with electroencephalography (EEG; a technique for recording the brain's electrical activity from the scalp). We found that the pulling sensation is associated with brain activity 280ms post-stimulus in the parietal lobe. These results may benefit people with sensory impairments (e.g. blindness) or paralysis by helping researchers use vibration feedback for navigation and the control of prosthetic limbs.
[1] J. De Havas, S. Ito, S. Bestmann, H. Gomi, “Neural dynamics of illusory tactile pulling sensations,” bioRxiv, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.12.464029
Jack De Havas / Sensory and Motor Research Group, Human and Information Science Laboratory
Email: cs-openhouse-ml@hco.ntt.co.jp