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Related Concept Videos

Gestalt Principles of Perception01:21

Gestalt Principles of Perception

Gestalt principles provide a framework for understanding how humans perceive objects as unified wholes within their context. These principles are essential in explaining the cognitive processes that make sense of complex visual stimuli by organizing them into coherent groups. One fundamental principle is proximity, which posits that objects located close to each other are perceived as a collective group. For instance, when dots are positioned near one another, the visual system interprets them...
Somatosensation01:33

Somatosensation

The somatosensory system relays sensory information from the skin, mucous membranes, limbs, and joints. Somatosensation is more familiarly known as the sense of touch. A typical somatosensory pathway includes three types of long neurons: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary neurons have cell bodies located near the spinal cord in groups of neurons called dorsal root ganglia. The sensory neurons of ganglia innervate designated areas of skin called dermatomes.
Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System01:11

Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System

The somatosensory system is the central and peripheral nervous system component that senses and processes touch, pressure, pain, temperature, and body position or proprioception. The process of sensation takes place at three levels:
The receptor level:
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Perception01:28

Perception

Perception is a fundamental psychological process that enables individuals to organize, interpret, and consciously experience sensory information. This process is crucial for understanding and interacting with the world around us. It includes both bottom-up and top-down processing, each playing a distinct role in how we perceive our environment.
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Tactile and Chemical Senses01:27

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Tactile senses encompass touch, temperature, and pain, each mediated by specific receptors. Touch receptors detect mechanical energy or pressure against the skin. Sensory fibers from these receptors enter the spinal cord and relay information to the brain stem. Here, most fibers cross over to the opposite side of the brain. The touch information then moves to the thalamus, which projects a map of the body's surface onto the somatosensory areas of the parietal lobes in the cerebral cortex. This...
Factors Affecting Perception01:25

Factors Affecting Perception

Perception is influenced by perceptual set, context, motivation, and emotion. Perceptual set, or perceptual expectancy, refers to the tendency to perceive things in a particular way, influenced by previous experiences and expectations. This phenomenon affects the interpretation of stimuli, creating a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that impact sensory perceptions of sound, taste, touch, and sight.
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Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator (TSPAS)
04:40

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Published on: July 30, 2020

Human perception of shape from touch.

Astrid M L Kappers1

  • 1Helmholtz Instituut, Physics of Man, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands. a.m.l.kappers@uu.nl

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences
|October 5, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Active touch significantly influences shape perception. First-order stimulus information, not multiple fingers, dominates curvature discrimination, and distinct touch after-effects emerge based on contact duration and transferability.

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Published on: July 30, 2020

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07:32

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Area of Science:

  • * Psychology
  • * Neuroscience
  • * Human Perception

Background:

  • * Active touch is crucial for understanding object properties.
  • * Previous research has explored shape discrimination and tactile after-effects.

Purpose of the Study:

  • * To investigate the role of active touch in shape perception and discrimination.
  • * To analyze curvature discrimination, compare unimanual vs. bimanual touch, and examine tactile after-effects.

Main Methods:

  • * Review of curvature discrimination experiments.
  • * Comparison of unimanual (one-finger) and bimanual (two-finger) touch performance.
  • * Measurement and analysis of tactile after-effects under various conditions.

Main Results:

  • * First-order stimulus information (slope) is key for curvature discrimination.
  • * Unimanual touch outperforms bimanual touch, likely due to interhemispheric relay.
  • * Two types of tactile after-effects were identified: one strong (partial transfer) and one weaker (full transfer).

Conclusions:

  • * Active touch, particularly first-order information, is fundamental to shape perception.
  • * Interhemispheric processing may hinder bimanual tactile accuracy.
  • * Tactile after-effects differ based on stimulus contact duration and exhibit varied transferability.