Traditionally, touch is associated with exteroception and is rarely considered a relevant sensory cue for controlling movements in space, unlike vision. We developed a technique to isolate and measure tactile involvement in controlling sliding finger movements over a surface. Young adults traced a 2D shape with their index finger under direct or mirror-reversed visual feedback to create a conflict between visual and somatosensory inputs. In this context, increased reliance on somatosensory input compromises movement accuracy. Based on the hypothesis that tactile cues contribute to guiding hand movements when in contact with a surface, we predicted poorer performance when the participants traced with their bare finger compared to when their tactile sensation was dampened by a smooth, rigid finger splint. The results supported this prediction. EEG source analyses revealed smaller current in the source-localized somatosensory cortex during sensory conflict when the finger directly touched the surface. This finding supports the hypothesis that, in response to mirror-reversed visual feedback, the central nervous system selectively gated task-irrelevant somatosensory inputs, thereby mitigating, though not entirely resolving, the visuo-somatosensory conflict. Together, our results emphasize touch’s involvement in movement control over a surface, challenging the notion that vision predominantly governs goal-directed hand or finger movements.

Multisensory perception is often studied through the effects of inter-sensory conflict, such as in the McGurk effect, the Ventriloquist illusion, and the Rubber Hand Illusion. Moreover, Bayesian approaches to cue fusion and causal inference overwhelmingly draw on cross-modal conflict to measure and to model multisensory perception. Given the prevalence of conflict, it is remarkable that accounts of multisensory perception have so far neglected the theory of conflict monitoring and cognitive control, established about twenty years ago. I hope to make a case for the role of conflict monitoring and resolution during multisensory perception. To this end, I will present EEG and fMRI data showing that cross-modal conflict in speech, resulting in either integration or segregation, triggers neural mechanisms of conflict detection and resolution. I will also present data supporting a role of these mechanisms during perceptual conflict in general, using Binocular Rivalry, surrealistic imagery, and cinema. Based on this preliminary evidence, I will argue that it is worth considering the potential role of conflict in multisensory perception and its incorporation in a causal inference framework. Finally, I will raise some potential problems associated with this proposal.