Dokument: Mechanisms of sensory attenuation and enhancement in auditory and tactile perception
| Titel: | Mechanisms of sensory attenuation and enhancement in auditory and tactile perception | |||||||
| URL für Lesezeichen: | https://docserv.uni-duesseldorf.de/servlets/DocumentServlet?id=74148 | |||||||
| URN (NBN): | urn:nbn:de:hbz:061-20260804-110050-2 | |||||||
| Kollektion: | Dissertationen | |||||||
| Sprache: | Englisch | |||||||
| Dokumententyp: | Wissenschaftliche Abschlussarbeiten » Dissertation | |||||||
| Medientyp: | Text | |||||||
| Autor: | Johnen, Saskia [Autor] | |||||||
| Dateien: |
| |||||||
| Beitragende: | Prof. Dr. Zimmermann, Eckart [Gutachter] Bellebaum, Christian [Gutachter] | |||||||
| Dewey Dezimal-Klassifikation: | 100 Philosophie und Psychologie » 150 Psychologie | |||||||
| Beschreibung: | Humans are exposed to a multitude of stimuli in their daily lives. To be able to discriminate
between different incoming stimuli, theories have proposed the phenomenon of sensory attenuation, suggesting that self-generated stimuli are perceived differently from similar externally generated ones. According to prominent approaches, this effect is based on efference copies of motor commands that are only available to the person performing the action. These efference copies are used in forward models, in which the predicted and the actual sensory outcome are compared and, in case of a match, attenuated. However, these approaches have recently been challenged by studies that also found attenuated perception without the involvement of self-generated actions. In addition, some studies failed to find attenuation following self-generated stimuli and instead reported enhanced perception. In this dissertation, the role of active movement was investigated in comparison to passive but temporally predictable movement. Furthermore, the seemingly opposing findings of attenuation and enhancement were examined by using different stimulus intensities. Study 1 revealed that the effects of sensory attenuation and enhancement in the auditory domain depend on stimulus intensity. Quiet tones tended to be enhanced, whereas louder tones were perceived as attenuated, resulting in a regression-to-the-mean pattern. It was further shown that this perceptual mean can be shifted by adapting participants to either loud or quiet contexts. When unexpected intensities were presented, participants showed stronger attenuation or enhancement in the direction of the adapted context. Moreover, this regression effect was also observed in conditions without participants’ actions but with visual cues that rendered the tone temporally predictable. In Study 2, the reported origins of the regression effect in Study 1 were investigated to examine why prediction or self-generation of a stimulus leads to perceptual biases rather than increased precision. It was found that the involvement of predictive cues or actions draws attention away from the perceived stimulus. This form of distraction increases uncertainty, resulting in a stronger regression toward the mean. Study 2 showed that prediction per se is not the crucial factor underlying auditory regression effects but rather constitutes one source of diverted attention that gives rise to this pattern. In Study 3, the role of predictability compared to action was investigated in the tactile domain. Participants moved either actively or passively along a trajectory that ended at a position in which self-touch was induced. After finding no differences in the perceived intensity between active and passive conditions, the passive conditions were further examined regarding different aspects of predictability. After experimentally excluding visual and (spatio-)temporal predictability as well as the sense of agency, proprioceptive predictability emerged as the crucial factor. It was further shown that proprioceptive predictability can be used to recalibrate the perception of self-touch. Specifically, even when the position of touch delivery was shifted away from the touched finger, attenuated perception was still observed, suggesting that participants’ representation of their arm in space had been recalibrated. In summary, auditory attenuation and enhancement can be understood as facets of a regression-to-the-mean pattern that arises due to a lack of attention caused by self-generation or predictive cues. Tactile attenuation of self-touch appears to result from proprioceptive predictability and can be recalibrated. Future research should investigate the regression effect in the tactile domain, as well as the role of attention in this modality, and examine parallels and differences between behavioral and neurophysiological findings across both modalities. | |||||||
| Lizenz: |  Dieses Werk ist lizenziert unter einer Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 International Lizenz | |||||||
| Fachbereich / Einrichtung: | Mathematisch- Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät » WE Psychologie | |||||||
| Dokument erstellt am: | 04.08.2026 | |||||||
| Dateien geändert am: | 04.08.2026 | |||||||
| Promotionsantrag am: | 26.05.2026 | |||||||
| Datum der Promotion: | 16.07.2026 |
