lecture 3- tactile and haptic perception Flashcards
what is tactile perception?
Tactile perception refers to the ability of the brain to understand (perceive) the information that comes from the skin, especially the skin of the hands. The hands are used to record sensory information, and then the brain uses this information to guide the hands during an activity.
sense of touch is..
crucial for survival
what are the 3 main groups of receptors?
- mechanoreceptors (respond to mechanical stimuli eg pressure (stroking), stretching and vibration)
- thermoreceptors (respond to temperature)
- chemoreceptors (respond to certain types of chemicals eg histamine)
note- this one is not certain
- nociceptors, subtypes of chemo-and mechanorecptors? (mediate the perception of pain)
state- different types of receptors are distributed throughout the skin and respond to different touch-related stimuli and events
mechanoreceptors: types
- merkel receptor
- meissners corpuscle
- pacinian
- fuffini cylinder
merkel receptor:
- small receptors with sharp borders
- slow adaption
- pressure fine texture and shape
- close to skin surface
meissners corpuscle:
- small receptors with sharp borders
- rapid adaptation
- indentation motion across skin
- close to skin surface
pacinian corpuscle:
- large receptors with diffuse borders
- rapid adaptation
- vibration and fine texture
- deeper in skin
ruffini cylinder:
- large receptors with diffuse borders
- slow adaptation
- stretching
- deeper in skin
Tactile acuity: how to measure I
- two-point threshold
- classical measure in early touch research (but vulnerable to cofounds)
- minimum separation between two points on the skin that is recognised as two
=> smallest discriminable distance between two points (JND)
mechanoreceptors: short introduction 2
DO THIS SLIDE AFTER LISTENING TO LEC
tactile acuity: how to measure II
- grating acuity
- 2-AFC task: horizontal vs. vertical orientation
- Acuity as the spacing for which orientation can still be accurately judged (75% correct)
- More objective measure (i.e., no temporal offset)
- Thresholds tend to be a bit lower than with 2-point threshold method (fingertip: ~ 1 mm vs. 2-4 mm)
receptor mechanisms for tactile acuity
- receptor properties determine the perceptual experience when skin is stimulated
- merkel receptors (close to skin) respond to grooved stimulus patterns => firing of the fibre reflects pattern of grooved stimulus=> signal detail and texture
sensitive body parts have higher receptor desity
=> better tactile acuity is associated with higher density of Merkel receptors
neural processing of touch
- But not the whole story: Higher acuity on index finger pad than on pad of little finger
even though receptor density is identical → cortical mechanisms - Size of receptive fields of cortical neurons also determines the tactile acuity
(discrimination) → cortical neurons representing body parts with higher acuity have smaller receptive fields
what is the definition of receptive field
the receptive field is a portion of sensory space that can elicit neuronal cortical responses when stimulated
effects of sensory training on tactile acuity
- Intense Braille reading can produce
superior tactile spatial acuity in blind and
sighted humans (change in cortical
representation) - Tactile acuity declines with age at a rate of
about 1% per year
duplex theory of texture perception I David Katz (1925/1989)- perception of texture depends on 2 cues:
1) spatial cues (available to vision and touch): determined by the size, shape and distribution of surface elements (eg., bumps and grooves- eg braille letters)
2) temporal cues (specific to touch):
determined by the rate of vibration as the skin moves across finely texture surfaces (eg sandpaper) => perception/ discrimination of very fine textures require movements
texture perception: temporal cues (receptor mechanisms)
hollins and Risner (2001):
sensing fine texture through temporal cues is mediated by perception of vibration
texture perception: temporal cues
hollins and risner (2000):
- participants struggle to identigy differences between two fine textures in static conditions but improved considerably when they were able to move their fingers over the textures
- coarse surfaces were equally discriminable in moving and stationary conditions
adaption paradigm:
(temporarily inactivating different receptor types)
- Meissner corpuscle (responds to low frequencies)
=>adapted at 10 Hz (for 6 min) - Pacinian corpuscle (responds to high frequencies)
=> adapted at 250 Hz (for 6 min) - 2-AFC task: Which texture is finer?
- After adaption to 250 Hz vibration participants were unable to discriminate the two textures
→ fine texture discrimination depends on Pacinian corpuscles
perceiving texture: vision vs touch
- Visually perceived surface texture is
strongly influenced by illumination! - Surfaces appear rougher with decreasing
illumination angle (no “roughness
constancy”) - Touch involves direct contact with a
surface – provides a more reliable
assessment of surface texture than vision - For very fine textures touch becomes
more accurate (higher resolution than
vision) + access to temporal cues…
interim summary: tactile perception
- Four types of mechanoreceptors with differently sized receptive fields
and different responses to stimulation (slow vs. rapidly adapting) that mediate different types of tactile perception - How to measure tactile acuity
- Mechanisms underlying tactile acuity
- Duplex theory of texture perception: Tactile perception of coarse textures is determined by spatial cues and perception of fine textures by temporal (vibration) cues
haptic perception- mediated by two afferent subsystems:
cutaneous/tactile input
- mechano- and thermoreceptors of the skin
- mediates tactual experience
kinaesthetic input
- mechanoreceptors embedded in muscles, tendons and joints
- contributes to the human perception of limb position => where are our body parts
state- haptics usually involves active manual exploration