Intermanual transfer of the curvature aftereffect in static and dynamic touch

Abstract

The existence and intermanual transfer of curvature aftereffects was studied for static and dynamic touch, whereby only the index fingers were used. A curvature aftereffect is the phenomenon that a flat surface is judged concave if the preceding touched stimulus was convex and vice versa. Substantial aftereffects were demonstrated when the subsequently presented adaptation and test stimulus were touched by the same index finger. When one index finger was used to touch the adaptation stimulus and the opposite index finger was employed to touch the test stimulus, only a partial transfer of the aftereffect was found for static touch, but a complete transfer was obtained in the dynamic case. These findings suggest that the representation of curvature information depends on the exploration mode.