Hands-On Magnetic Head Illusion: Sound Appears Inside the Head—But Only While Being Touched

We present the "Hands-On Magnetic Head Illusion, " a multisensory system in which the perceived location of sound is drawn toward the head-but only while the head is being touched.Building on prior studies, we hypothesize that this audiotactile magnet effect arises not merely from bodily configuration or the presence of touch, but from the perceptual and cognitive significance of the head as a body part.In a within-subjects experiment, we compared four tactile stimulation sites: (1) the top of the head, (2) a hand placed on the top of the head, (3) a hand placed on the shoulder, and (4) a hand positioned along the body's midline in front of the head.Results showed that the illusion-i.e., the perceived shift of sound toward the point of contact-occurred strongly only when the contact involved the head or a hand on the head.In contrast, the effect was clearly weaker when touching the shoulder or a hand placed along the body's midline, with the degree of perceived auditory compression being less than half of that in head-related conditions.These findings suggest that the illusion is specific to the head.Furthermore, the fact that direct skin contact was not necessary-as the illusion was also elicited when touching a hand placed on the head-indicates that the effect stems not from physical contact with the scalp, but rather from the perceptual activation of the head as a sensory stage. CCS Concepts Human-centered computing Mixed / augmented reality.