The hearing body: Experimental data, Part 1

Tajadura-Jimenez, Ana (2017). The hearing body: Experimental data, Part 1. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852246

The mental representation we have of our body is essential for successful interaction with the environment. This representation is not fixed, but is continuously updated in response to the available sensory information. While previous studies have highlighted the role of vision, touch and proprioception in constructing the body-representation in the brain, the role of auditory information remains largely unknown. Interestingly, the sounds that accompany almost every bodily movement are highly rich in information about the body and the space immediately surrounding it. For instance, the sounds produced when tapping on a surface inform us about the length and strength of our arm. This project will investigate how auditory information generated by our bodies updates our body-representation. A series of psychological experiments will explore how altering self-produced sounds in real-time changes different body-representations, including the representation of the space surrounding the body, the potential actions that we can perform and the emotional states linked to our body capabilities. This multidisciplinary and innovative research project will provide novel insights into the nature of body-representations and, ultimately, guide the design of audio-based applications that can improve body-image, self-esteem, movement patterns and social interactions to support wellbeing and rehabilitation for people with movement impairments.

Data description (abstract)

Here we present data corresponding to a study in which we investigated the necessary conditions to induce changes in the represented length of the arm when manipulating the spatial location of the sounds produced by one’s own hand tapping. Across two experiments, we asked participants to tap with their arm on a surface while extending their arm. We manipulated the tapping sounds to originate at double the distance to the tapping locations, as well as their synchrony to the action, which is known to affect feelings of agency over the sounds. Kinaesthetic cues were manipulated by having additional conditions in which participants did not displace their arm but kept tapping either close (Experiment 1) or far (Experiment 2) from their body torso. We measured represented arm length (perceived tactile distances on the tapping arm) and bodily feelings when exposed to the various conditions. Results show that both the feelings of agency over the action sounds and kinaesthetic cues signalling arm displacement when displacement of the sound source occurs are necessary to observe changes in perceived tactile distance on the arm. Moreover, our results provide the first evidence of consciously perceived changes in arm-representation evoked by action sounds and suggest that the observed changes in perceived tactile distance relate to experienced arm elongation. The data in this collection are part of The Hearing Body project, a project investigating how the manipulation of action sounds may alter the mental representation of one's body and the related emotional state and body behaviour. Other data collections part of The Hearing Body project have been deposited (Please see Related Resources section below). All parts 1 to 4 consist of experimental data, but they are data from different studies. Part 1 and 2 contain subjective reports and behavioural data, and Part 3 and 4 contain subjective reports, behavioural data and data on electrodermal activity changes. Results were published in the following paper: Tajadura-Jimenez A, Tsakiris M, Marquardt T and Bianchi-Berthouze N (2015). Action sounds update the mental representation of arm dimension: contributions of kinaesthesia and agency (see Related resources section).

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