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Discriminating tactile speed in absence of raised texture elements: Role of deformation and vibratory cues

View ORCID ProfileAlessandro Moscatelli, Colleen P. Ryan, View ORCID ProfileSimone Ciotti, Lucia Cosentino, Marc O. Ernst, Francesco Lacquaniti
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/599522
Alessandro Moscatelli
aDepartment of Systems Medicine and Centre of Space Biomedicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
bDepartment of Neuromotor Physiology, Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, Rome, Italy
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  • ORCID record for Alessandro Moscatelli
  • For correspondence: a.moscatelli@hsantalucia.it
Colleen P. Ryan
aDepartment of Systems Medicine and Centre of Space Biomedicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
bDepartment of Neuromotor Physiology, Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, Rome, Italy
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Simone Ciotti
aDepartment of Systems Medicine and Centre of Space Biomedicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
bDepartment of Neuromotor Physiology, Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, Rome, Italy
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Lucia Cosentino
bDepartment of Neuromotor Physiology, Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, Rome, Italy
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Marc O. Ernst
cDepartment of Applied Cognitive Psychology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
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Francesco Lacquaniti
aDepartment of Systems Medicine and Centre of Space Biomedicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
bDepartment of Neuromotor Physiology, Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, Rome, Italy
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Abstract

Motion encoding in touch relies on multiple cues, such as displacements of traceable texture elements, friction-induced vibrations, and gross fingertip deformations by shear force. We evaluated the role of deformation and vibration cues in tactile speed discrimination. To this end, we tested the discrimination of speed of a moving smooth glass plate, and compared the precision of the responses when the same task was performed with a plate having a fine texture. Participants performed the task with and without masking vibrations. Speed discrimination was nearly as precise among the two surface types, as assessed by the steep slope of the psychometric function. Consistent with our previous work, high-frequency vibrations impaired the ability of the participants in discriminating surface speed. Results of the current study showed that it is possible to discriminate motion speed even in absence of a raised texture.

Highlights

  • On a smooth surface, humans are able to discriminate the speed of a moving surface by frictional motion cues

  • The precision of speed discrimination is nearly the same with smooth and fine-textured surface types

  • High frequency vibrations impair the ability to discriminate speed of moving surfaces

Footnotes

  • We added a new experiment (Experiment 2) to measure contact force with a Load Cell. We analyzed vibrations with the accelerometer ADXL337

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted January 15, 2020.
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Discriminating tactile speed in absence of raised texture elements: Role of deformation and vibratory cues
Alessandro Moscatelli, Colleen P. Ryan, Simone Ciotti, Lucia Cosentino, Marc O. Ernst, Francesco Lacquaniti
bioRxiv 599522; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/599522
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Discriminating tactile speed in absence of raised texture elements: Role of deformation and vibratory cues
Alessandro Moscatelli, Colleen P. Ryan, Simone Ciotti, Lucia Cosentino, Marc O. Ernst, Francesco Lacquaniti
bioRxiv 599522; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/599522

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