ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we review the psychophysical and neurophysiological basis of tactile selective attention. As in other sensory systems, attention plays a major role in the way that sensory inputs are processed and perceived. The importance of attention in touch can easily be demonstrated by switching one’s focus of attention to different locations on the body. For example, if you switch your focus of attention to your foot, you immediately become conscious of sensations arising from receptors in your foot that were non-existent a moment earlier. This simple observation demonstrates the power of selective attention and emphasizes two important aspects of sensory processing. First, it shows that we have a limited information processing 198capacity and that, under normal circumstances, we ignore most of the sensory inputs that impinge on our bodies. Second, it shows that attention is under cognitive control and, like a lens, focuses our mental efforts onto specific sensory inputs at selected body locations.
