日本東京大學(xué)的一個研究小組在美國在線科學(xué)雜志《PLoS綜合》新一期上發(fā)表文章說，他們的實驗表明，人體對溫度的感受可能受視覺信息影響。

東京大學(xué)認(rèn)知科學(xué)專業(yè)教授橫澤一彥的團隊以20名大學(xué)生為對象進行了實驗。他們在桌上豎起一塊木制的擋板，讓學(xué)生把自己的手放到擋板外側(cè)，而在擋板內(nèi)側(cè)放置一只假手。坐在桌邊的學(xué)生只能看到面前的假手，而看不見自己的手。

研究人員先以同樣的時間間隔給20名學(xué)生的手和假手施以同樣的刺激，使他們認(rèn)為假手與自己的手接觸到了同樣的東西。

接下來，研究人員把室溫的塑料塊同時放到學(xué)生的手和假手的手背上，然后將假手手背上的塑料塊換成冰塊，讓學(xué)生看到，結(jié)果20人中有15人表示手接觸到了冷的物體；再把假手手背上的冰塊重新?lián)Q成塑料塊，讓學(xué)生看到，20人中又有18人回答溫度上升了。

橫澤教授說，這項實驗表明，人體對溫度的感覺是以皮膚觸覺為基礎(chǔ)，但也會受到視覺信息的影響，最終“互補”而形成的。

Shoko Kanaya mail, Yuka Matsushima, Kazuhiko Yokosawa

Although visual information seems to affect thermal perception (e.g. red color is associated with heat), previous studies have failed to demonstrate the interaction between visual and thermal senses. However, it has been reported that humans feel an illusory thermal sensation in conjunction with an apparently-thermal visual stimulus placed on a prosthetic hand in the rubber hand illusion (RHI) wherein an individual feels that a prosthetic (rubber) hand belongs to him/her. This study tests the possibility that the ownership of the body surface on which a visual stimulus is placed enhances the likelihood of a visual-thermal interaction. We orthogonally manipulated three variables: induced hand-ownership, visually-presented thermal information, and tactically-presented physical thermal information. Results indicated that the sight of an apparently-thermal object on a rubber hand that is illusorily perceived as one's own hand affects thermal judgments about the object physically touching this hand. This effect was not observed without the RHI. The importance of ownership of a body part that is touched by the visual object on the visual-thermal interaction is discussed.