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Relative vibrotactile spatial acuity of the torso

While tactile acuity for pressure has been extensively investigated, far less is known about acuity for vibrotactile stimulation. Vibrotactile acuity is important however, as such stimulation is used in many applications, including sensory substitution devices. We tested discrimination of vibrotacti...

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Autores principales: Jóhannesson, Ómar I., Hoffmann, Rebekka, Valgeirsdóttir, Vigdís Vala, Unnþórsson, Rúnar, Moldoveanu, Alin, Kristjánsson, Árni
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5649388/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28856387
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00221-017-5073-6
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author Jóhannesson, Ómar I.
Hoffmann, Rebekka
Valgeirsdóttir, Vigdís Vala
Unnþórsson, Rúnar
Moldoveanu, Alin
Kristjánsson, Árni
author_facet Jóhannesson, Ómar I.
Hoffmann, Rebekka
Valgeirsdóttir, Vigdís Vala
Unnþórsson, Rúnar
Moldoveanu, Alin
Kristjánsson, Árni
author_sort Jóhannesson, Ómar I.
collection PubMed
description While tactile acuity for pressure has been extensively investigated, far less is known about acuity for vibrotactile stimulation. Vibrotactile acuity is important however, as such stimulation is used in many applications, including sensory substitution devices. We tested discrimination of vibrotactile stimulation from eccentric rotating mass motors with in-plane vibration. In 3 experiments, we tested gradually decreasing center-to-center (c/c) distances from 30 mm (experiment 1) to 13 mm (experiment 3). Observers judged whether a second vibrating stimulator (‘tactor’) was to the left or right or in the same place as a first one that came on 250 ms before the onset of the second (with a 50-ms inter-stimulus interval). The results show that while accuracy tends to decrease the closer the tactors are, discrimination accuracy is still well above chance for the smallest distance, which places the threshold for vibrotactile stimulation well below 13 mm, which is lower than recent estimates. The results cast new light on vibrotactile sensitivity and can furthermore be of use in the design of devices that convey information through vibrotactile stimulation.
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spelling pubmed-56493882017-11-01 Relative vibrotactile spatial acuity of the torso Jóhannesson, Ómar I. Hoffmann, Rebekka Valgeirsdóttir, Vigdís Vala Unnþórsson, Rúnar Moldoveanu, Alin Kristjánsson, Árni Exp Brain Res Research Article While tactile acuity for pressure has been extensively investigated, far less is known about acuity for vibrotactile stimulation. Vibrotactile acuity is important however, as such stimulation is used in many applications, including sensory substitution devices. We tested discrimination of vibrotactile stimulation from eccentric rotating mass motors with in-plane vibration. In 3 experiments, we tested gradually decreasing center-to-center (c/c) distances from 30 mm (experiment 1) to 13 mm (experiment 3). Observers judged whether a second vibrating stimulator (‘tactor’) was to the left or right or in the same place as a first one that came on 250 ms before the onset of the second (with a 50-ms inter-stimulus interval). The results show that while accuracy tends to decrease the closer the tactors are, discrimination accuracy is still well above chance for the smallest distance, which places the threshold for vibrotactile stimulation well below 13 mm, which is lower than recent estimates. The results cast new light on vibrotactile sensitivity and can furthermore be of use in the design of devices that convey information through vibrotactile stimulation. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2017-08-30 2017 /pmc/articles/PMC5649388/ /pubmed/28856387 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00221-017-5073-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Research Article
Jóhannesson, Ómar I.
Hoffmann, Rebekka
Valgeirsdóttir, Vigdís Vala
Unnþórsson, Rúnar
Moldoveanu, Alin
Kristjánsson, Árni
Relative vibrotactile spatial acuity of the torso
title Relative vibrotactile spatial acuity of the torso
title_full Relative vibrotactile spatial acuity of the torso
title_fullStr Relative vibrotactile spatial acuity of the torso
title_full_unstemmed Relative vibrotactile spatial acuity of the torso
title_short Relative vibrotactile spatial acuity of the torso
title_sort relative vibrotactile spatial acuity of the torso
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5649388/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28856387
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00221-017-5073-6
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