Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
SOCIAL NEUROSCIENCE, cilt.1, sa.1, ss.1-15, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)
The integration of vision and touch is proposed as a critical factor for
processing one's own body and the bodies of others in the brain. We hypothesise that tactile stimulation on an
individual’s face may change the ability to process the faces of other, but not
the processing of other visual images. We aimed to determine if facial touch
increased the activity of the mirror system and face recognition memory of the
observer. Therefore, mu suppression was measured to
compare the effect of facial touch in performing two visual tasks. The
participants observed faces and non-face visual images under two sets of conditions.
In the first condition, a robotic finger touched the participant’s cheek while
in the second condition, no touch occurred. Upon each observational task, the
participants were given in a recognition test. Behavioural results indicated
that facial touch improved recognition performance for faces, but not for
non-face visual images. Tactile stimulation increased mu suppression in both occipital
and central electrodes during face processing; however, the suppression did not
significantly change during non-face visual processing. Our findings support
the concept that the brain
uses a self-body representation, as a reference to understand the mental states
or behaviours of others.
Key words: Tactile
stimulation, face processing, face recognition, mu suppression