A review of material perception from the perspective of multisensory integration research

Abstract

Shitsukan is a comprehensive concept for both an object’s material (e.g., metal, wood) and its properties (e.g., roughness, glossiness) based on either visual, auditory, or tactile information. Shitsukan plays an important role within human activity. Recently, shitsukan perception, or material perception, is assumed to be based on statistical inferencing from multisensory information and several studies have investigated the neural basis of such statistical inferencing. In this paper, we discuss the mechanisms of material perception in terms of multisensory integration research and propose a new perspective from which to elucidate the information processing underlying shitsukan.