Touch and the Phantom Rabbit

Researchers shed light on how the brain perceives real and imagined touch. The study was published in the March 2006 issue of the journal PLoS Biology.

The researchers were able to identify brain activity associated with real and imagined touch using the cutaneous rabbit illusion.

This illusion involves repeated rapid tapping at the wrist, then near the elbow. This can create the illusion of touches at intervening locations along the arm, as if a rabbit hopped along it.

Image: The cutaneous rabbit illusion engages the same sector of the brain that would respond if that body site (P2) had actually been touched. (Photo: © Blankenburg et al.)

Read about this story: The Cutaneous Rabbit Illusion Affects Human Primary Sensory Cortex Somatotopically (PLoS Biology)