The process of distal attribution illuminated through studies of sensory substitution
Abstract
When we interact with objects in our environment, as a general rule we are not aware of the proximal stimulation they provide, but we directly experience the external object. This process of assigning an external cause is known as distal attribution. It is extremely difficult to measure how distal attribution emerges because it arises so early in life and appears to be automatic. Sensory substitution systems give us the possibility to measure the process as it occurs online. With these devices, objects in our environment produce novel proximal stimulation patterns and individuals have to establish the link between the proximal stimulation and the distal object. This review disentangles the contributing factors that allow the nervous system to assign a distal cause, thereby creating the experience of an external world. In particular, it highlights the role of the assumption of a stable world, the role of movement, and finally that of calibration. From the existing sensory substitution literature it appears that distal attribution breaks down when one of these principles is violated and as such the review provides an important piece to the puzzle of distal attribution.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Sensory substitution devices can become externalized, so that proximal sensory stimulation is attributed to a distinct exterior object.
“sensory substitution devices can become externalized (also called distal attribution; Auvray et al., 2005; Hartcher-O’Brien & Auvray, 2014), so that the haptic pressure picked up by mechanical receptors on the hand is experienced as occurring at the tip of the cane”
From Designing sensory-substitution devices: Principles, pitfalls and potential1 (2016) · cites this paper as Hartcher-O’Brien & Auvray, 2014
Cites
A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness
O'Regan, J. K., & Noë, A. (2001) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x01000115 · Cited by 3,126 · see citing works
White, B. W., Saunders, F. A., Scadden, L., Bach-Y-Rita, P., & Collins, C. C. (1970) · Perception & Psychophysics · doi:10.3758/bf03210126 · Cited by 232 · see citing works
There is something out there: Distal attribution in sensory substitution, twenty years later
AUVRAY, M., HANNETON, S., LENAY, C., & O'REGAN, K. (2005) · Journal of Integrative Neuroscience · doi:10.1142/s0219635205001002 · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Self-citationFast, accurate reaching movements with a visual-to-auditory sensory substitution device
Levy-Tzedek, S., Hanassy, S., Abboud, S., Maidenbaum, S., & Amedi, A. (2012) · Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience · doi:10.3233/rnn-2012-110219 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Designing sensory-substitution devices: Principles, pitfalls and potential1
Kristjánsson, Á., Moldoveanu, A., Jóhannesson, Ó. I., Balan, O., Spagnol, S., Valgeirsdóttir, V. V., & Unnthorsson, R. (2016) · Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience · doi:10.3233/rnn-160647 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
“…it hammers home the important point that sensory substitution devices can become externalized (also called distal attribution; Auvray et al., 2005; Hartcher-O’Brien & Auvray, 2014), so that the haptic pressure picked up by mechanical receptors on the hand is experienced as occurring at the tip of…”
Background
- Authors
- Hartcher-O’Brien, J., & Auvray, M.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Venue
- Multisensory Research
- Publisher
- Walter de Gruyter GmbH
- Published
- 2014
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 5-6
- Pages
- 421-441
- ISSN
- 2213-4794 (ISSN-L)
- 2213-4808
- OpenAlex
- W2026206403
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 2 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 1.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Multisensory Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Francis Crick Institute
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-10-IDEX-0001, ANR-10-LABX-0087)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Keywords
- sensory substitution, object recognition, movement, calibration, visual perception, multisensory integration
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Auditory Perception, Eye Movements, Humans, Movement, Orientation, Proprioception, Space Perception
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
