PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Benoit P. Delhaye AU - Félicien Schiltz AU - Allan Barrea AU - Jean-Louis Thonnard AU - Philippe Lefèvre TI - Measuring fingerpad deformation during active object manipulation AID - 10.1101/2021.07.20.453037 DP - 2021 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 2021.07.20.453037 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/07/21/2021.07.20.453037.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/07/21/2021.07.20.453037.full AB - During active object manipulation, the finger-object interactions give rise to complex fingertip skin deformations. These deformations are in turn encoded by the local tactile afferents and provide rich and behaviorally relevant information to the central nervous system. Most of the work studying the mechanical response of the finger to dynamic loading has been performed under a passive setup, thereby precisely controlling the kinematics or the dynamics of the loading. However, to identify aspects of the deformations that are relevant to online control during object manipulation, it is desirable to measure the skin response in an active setup. To that end, we developed a device that allows us to monitor finger forces, skin deformations, and kinematics during fine manipulation. We describe the device in detail and test it to precisely describe how the fingertip skin in contact with the object deforms during a simple vertical oscillation task. We show that the level of grip force directly influences the fingerpad skin strains and that the strain rates are substantial during active manipulation (norm up to 100%/s). The developed setup will enable us to causally relate sensory information, i.e. skin deformation, to online control, i.e. grip force adjustment, in future studies.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.