Multisensory interactions and the representation of the body in the brain

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The senses interact and complement each other to provide reliable sensory information about the external and internal world. The main objectives of my research program are (1) to determine how visual, auditory and vestibular information are combined to provide reliable cues to body orientation; experiments will involve novel investigations into the contributions of extremely peripheral vision on orientation and self-motion perception while sitting and standing; (2) to determine the coding and flexibility of body representation and its effects on sensory processing; experiments will involve psychophysical measures of perceived body size and the location of touch and how these perceptions can be altered by experience; and (3) to determine the contribution of sensory input to the sense of body ownership; we have developed the first quantitative estimate of the perception of body ownership; experiments will include disrupting the grounding influence of the vestibular system and creating artificial links between visual and tactile cues to enhance the projection of the self into video images. The common element to these three themes is to quantify the emerging central role of the body in many aspects of perception.