For those wondering: What does cutaneous touch (like our vibrotactile stimuli) have to do with body state estimation?
Neurophysiological and behavioral work has shown that cutaneous afferents carry kinesthetic information and contribute functionally to movement detection and execution.
Fabian Tatai
Together, these results provide a quantitative, normative account of tactile suppression during movement and point to a general principle for how tactile input may be regulated during action.
As internal uncertainty about hand position increases, suppression decreases—consistent with greater reliance on somatosensory input. This makes a purely fixed gating account unlikely, as suppression changes systematically when we explicitly manipulate uncertainty.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Why is touch perceived as weaker during movement?
In our new preprint 📝, we examine tactile suppression during reaching.
Using optimal control theory, we show that tactile suppression reflects dynamic, uncertainty-dependent integration of forward model predictions and sensory feedback.
Huge thanks to my collaborators Dimitris Voudouris, @dominikstrb.bsky.social, Katja Fiehler, @c-rothkopf.bsky.social and the excellence cluster "The Adaptive Mind" for providing such a stimulating research environment. 🙏
Last week to apply for a 3yr postdoc with @tsawallis.bsky.social, Frank Jäkel and myself. Deadline is March 15th hmc-lab.com/TAMPostdoc.h...
Happy to announce that I am presenting a poster today at #CogSci25: Physical reasoning during motor learning aids people at transferring mass, but not motor control mappings.
This is joint work with Dominik Ürüm, @mariaeckstein.bsky.social and @c-rothkopf.bsky.social
Find out more at P3-T-192!
I am presenting our work this week at #NCMKobe26 @ncmsociety.bsky.social
Our poster is during the Thursday/Friday session: **P2-G-182** - _A computational account of tactile suppression during reaching movements_
Dimitris Voudouris @dominikstrb.bsky.social Katja Fiehler @c-rothkopf.bsky.social
Looking forward to meeting you #ECVP2025 Mainz this week, including collaborative work with @tobnie.bsky.social @dominikstrb.bsky.social @ookenfooken.bsky.social @fatatai.bsky.social @tsawallis.bsky.social @mamassian.bsky.social @guidomaiello.bsky.social @mariaeckstein.bsky.social and many others
