Vibrotactile adaptation impairs discrimination of fine, but not coarse, textures.
Somatosens Mot Res
; 18(4): 253-62, 2001.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-11794728
ABSTRACT
The effect of vibrotactile adaptation on the ability to discriminate textured surfaces was examined in three experiments. The surfaces were rectilinear arrays of pyramids produced by etching of silicon wafers. Adaptation to 100-Hz vibration severely hampered discrimination of surfaces with spatial periods below 100 microm (Experiment 1), but had little effect on the discrimination of coarser textures (Experiment 2). To determine which vibrotactile channel--Rapidly Adapting or Pacinian--plays the larger role in mediating the discrimination of fine textures, widely separated adapting frequencies (10 and 250 Hz) were used in Experiment 3. The fact that high- but not low-frequency adaptation interfered with discrimination suggests that the Pacinian system contributes importantly to this ability. Taken as a whole, the results of this study strongly support the duplex theory of tactile texture perception, according to which different mechanisms--spatial and vibrotactile--mediate the perception of coarse and fine textures, respectively.
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Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Touch
/
Vibration
/
Adaptation, Psychological
/
Discrimination, Psychological
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
Somatosens Mot Res
Journal subject:
NEUROLOGIA
/
PSICOFISIOLOGIA
Year:
2001
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: