Directory of Research and Expertise

Conference papers

Deans-Browne, C., Cataldo, A., Frier, W., Limerick, H., Beattie, D., & Haggard, P. (2022). Sense of Agency Over Hands-free Gestural Control is Modulated by the Timing of Haptic Feedback. In Haptics: Science, Technology, Applications: 13th International Conference on Human Haptic Sensing and Touch Enabled Computer Applications, EuroHaptics 2022, Hamburg, Germany https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06249-0  

Journal articles

Cataldo, A., Dupin, L., Dempsey-Jones, H., Gomi, H., & Haggard, P. (2022). Interplay of tactile and motor information in constructing spatial self-perception. Current Biology https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.01.047 

Chapters

Cheng, T., Cataldo, A., (2022). The Somatosensory Senses.  In Neuroscience and Philosophy, ed De Brigard, F., & Sinnot-Armstrong W., MIT press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/12611.001.0001 

Chapters

Cheng, T., Cataldo, A., (2021 – forthcoming). Touch and Other Somatosensory Senses. In Neuroscience and Philosophy, ed De Brigard, F., & Sinnot-Armstrong W., MIT press.

Cataldo, A., Dupin, L., Gomi, H., & Haggard, P. (2020). Sensorimotor signals underlying space perception: An investigation based on self-touch. Neuropsychologia, 151, 107729. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107729

Journal articles

Cataldo, A., Hagura, N., Hyder, Y., & Haggard, P. (2021). Touch inhibits touch: sanshool-induced paradoxical tingling reveals perceptual interference between somatosensory submodalities. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (in press).

Journal articles

Farmer, H., Cataldo, A., Adel, N., Wignall, E., Gallese, V., Deroy, O., ... & Ciaunica, A. (2020). The detached self: Investigating the effect of depersonalisation on self-bias in the visual remapping of touch. Multisensory Research, 1(aop), 1-22.

PeerReviewed

Non-noxious warmth reduces both perceived pain intensity, and the amplitude of EEG markers of pain. However, the spatial properties of thermo-nociceptive interaction, and the level of sensory processing at which it occurs remain unclear. Here, we investigated whether inter-channel warmth-pain interactions occur before or after intra-channel spatial summation of warmth. Warm stimuli were applied to the fingers of the right hand. Their number and location were manipulated in different conditions. A concomitant noxious test pulse was delivered to the middle finger using a CO2 laser. We replicated the classical suppressive effect of warmth on both pain perceived intensity and EEG markers. Importantly, inhibition of pain was not affected by the location and the number of thermal stimuli, even though they increased the perceived intensity of warmth. Our results therefore suggest that the inhibitory effect of warmth on pain is not somatotopically organized. They also rule out the possibility that warmth affects nociceptive processing after intra-channel warmth summation.

PeerReviewed

Experimental psychology often studies perception analytically, reducing its focus to minimal sensory units, such as thresholds or just noticeable differences in a single stimulus. Here, in contrast, we examine a synthetic aspect: how multiple inputs to a sensory system are aggregated into an overall percept. Participants in three experiments judged the total stimulus intensity for simultaneous electrical shocks to two digits. We tested whether the integration of component somatosensory stimuli into a total percept occurs automatically, or rather depends on the ability to consciously perceive discrepancy among components (Experiment 1), whether the discrepancy among these components influences sensitivity or/and perceptual bias in judging totals (Experiment 2), and whether the salience of each individual component stimulus affects perception of total intensity (Experiment 3). Perceptual aggregation of two simultaneous component events occurred both when participants could perceptually discriminate the two intensities, and also when they could not. Further, the actual discrepancy between the stimuli modulated both participants’ sensitivity and perceptual bias: increasing discrepancies produced a systematic and progressive overestimation of total intensity. The degree of this bias depended primarily on the salience of the stronger stimulus in the pair. Overall, our results suggest that important nonlinear mechanisms contribute to sensory aggregation. The mind aggregates component inputs into a coherent and synthetic perceptual experience in a salience-weighted fashion that is not based on simple summation of inputs.

PeerReviewed

When warm thermal stimulators are placed on the ring and index fingers of one hand, and a neutraltemperature stimulator on the middle finger, all three fingers feel warm. This illusion is known as thermal referral (TR). On one interpretation, the heterogenous thermal signals are overridden by homogenous tactile signals. This cross-modal thermo-tactile interaction could reflect a process of object recognition, based on the prior that many objects are thermally homogenous. Interestingly, the illusion was reported to disappear when the middle digit was lifted off the thermal stimulator, suggesting that tactile stimulation is necessary. However, no study has investigated whether purely thermal stimulation might induce TR, without any tactile object to which temperature can be attributed. We used radiant thermal stimulation to deliver purely thermal stimuli, which either were or were not accompanied by simultaneous touch. We found identical TR effects in both the original thermo-tactile condition, and in a purely thermoceptive condition where no tactile object was present. Control experiments ruled out explanations based on poor spatial discrimination of warm signals. Our purely thermoceptive results suggest that TR could reflect low-level organization of the thermoceptive pathway, rather than a cognitive intermodal modulation based on tactile object perception.

PeerReviewed

Psychological characterisation of sensory systems often focusses on minimal units of perception, such as thresholds, acuity, selectivity and precision. Research on how these units are aggregated to create integrated, synthetic experiences is rarer. We investigated mechanisms of somatosensory integration by asking volunteers to judge the total intensity of stimuli delivered to two fingers simultaneously. Across four experiments, covering physiological pathways for tactile, cold and warm stimuli, we found that judgements of total intensity were particularly poor when the two simultaneous stimuli had different intensities. Total intensity of discrepant stimuli was systematically overestimated. This bias was absent when the two stimulated digits were on different hands. Taken together, our results showed that the weaker stimulus of a discrepant pair was not extinguished, but contributed less to the perception of the total than the stronger stimulus. Thus, perception of somatosensory totals is biased towards the most salient element. ‘Peak’ biases in human judgements are well-known, particularly in affective experience. We show that a similar mechanism also influences sensory experience.