Self-touch is sensed less intense as touch produced by another person. According to the standard explanation, if predicted and actual sensations match, the intensity of the touch will be reduced. Here, we asked whether sensory attenuation is spatially specific. To this end, participants laid their left hand under a metal arc on which a force sensor was mounted. Pressing the sensor caused one of two motors to rotate a lever that either touched the index or the ring finger. We took care that no cues would reveal in advance which of the motors would move in order to leave participants uninformed about the finger that will be stimulated. Any reduction in felt intensity of the touch could therefore be induced only by the efference copy of the touching movement. We found strong spatial specificity of sensory attenuation of self-touch, selecting between two fingers of the same hand.

自我触摸的感觉不如他人产生的触摸强烈。根据标准解释，如果预测的感觉和实际的感觉匹配，触摸的强度就会降低。在这里，我们询问感觉衰减是否具有空间特异性。为此，参与者将左手放在安装有力传感器的金属弧下。按下传感器会导致两个电机之一旋转接触食指或无名指的杠杆。我们注意没有任何提示会提前透露哪些电机会移动，以便让参与者不知道将被刺激的手指。因此，任何触摸感觉强度的降低都只能由触摸运动的影响副本引起。我们发现自我触摸的感觉衰减具有很强的空间特异性，