Auditory distance perception in peripersonal space: Effect of tactileexploration on reaching measures

HÜG, MERCEDES; VERGARA, RAMIRO OSCAR; TOMMASINI, FABIÁN; ETCHEMENDY, PABLO ESTEBAN; BERMEJO, FERNANDO; FERNANDEZ, LAURA

Villa Carlos Paz

Congreso; XXXIV Reunión Anual SAN 2019; 2019

We conducted an experiment in which the participants had to estimate if a sound source was reachable (auditory peripersonal space, APS) and to estimate its distance (auditory distance perception, ADP) by reaching to a small loudspeaker. Participants were assigned to Experimental (EG) and Control (CG) groups. They resolved three conditions in the following order: Pretest?Test?Posttest. In Test condition, the CG repeated the same task performed in Pretest and Posttest without any feedback, whereas the EG resolved a tactile exploration phase in which they were able to touch the sound source. We studied the effects of tactile exploration feedback on both reaching measures. We characterize the participants? responses and provide evidence that tactile exploration feedback significantly reduces the response bias of both the perceived boundary of the APS and the ADP of sound sources located within reach. In case of CG, the repetition of the task does not affect APS and ADP accuracy, but improves the performance consistency.