Repetitive somatosensory stimulation shrinks the body image

Current models of mental body representations (MBRs) indicate that tactile inputs feed some of them for different functions, implying that altering tactile inputs may affect MBRs differently. Here we tested this hypothesis by leveraging Repetitive Somatosensory Stimulation (RSS), known to improve tactile perception by modulating primary somatosensory cortex (SI) activity, and measured its effects over the body image, the body model and the superficial schema in a randomized sham-controlled, double-blind cross-over study. Results show that RSS affected the body image, participants perceiving their finger size as being smaller after RSS. While previous work showed increase of finger size perception after tactile anesthesia, these findings reveal that tactile inputs can diametrically modulate the body image. In contrast, RSS did not seem to alter the body model or superficial schema. In addition, we report a novel mislocalization pattern, with a bias towards the middle finger in the distal phalanges that reverses towards the thumb in the proximal phalanx, enriching the known distortions of the superficial schema. Overall, these findings provide novel insights into the functional organization of MBRs and their relationships with somatosensory information. Reducing the perceived body size through RSS could be useful in helping treat body image disturbances.