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Abstract:
Abstract: We report data from a series of experiments
investigating cross-modal attentional links between vision and
touch. In normals, we found that speeded reactions to visual
targets were facilitated by uninformative, spatially coincident
tactile cues; and likewise with the modality of cue and target
reversed. Having established robust cross-modal cueing effects in
normals, we examined visuotactile interactions in seven hemianopic
patients with unilateral damage to occipital cortex. We asked
whether visual performance in the blind field could be facilitated
by providing spatially coincident, non-predictive tactile cues to
the patient's hand as it rested in the affected field. For some
patients, responses to visual targets in the blind field were
significantly affected by tactile cues. In addition, we asked
whether visual cues in the blind hemifield could influence speeded
judgements to tactile targets presented to either hand. In one
patient, visual cues in the blind hemifield influenced responses to
tactile targets in a similar manner to visual cues presented in the
unaffected hemifield. Thus residual visual processing in the blind
field of some hemianopes can modulate, and be modulated by, the
processing of sensory events within an entirely separate modality
(touch). These findings provide strong evidence for preserved
visuotactile attentional links in the absence of conscious
vision.
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