Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 17, 2026
05:43
Applying Incongruent Visual-Tactile Stimuli during Object Transfer with Vibro-Tactile Feedback
Published on: May 23, 2019
Motor commands in children interfere with their haptic perception of objects
Monica Gori1, Valentina Squeri, Alessandra Sciutti
1Department of Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy. monica.gori@iit.it
Experimental Brain Research
|October 16, 2012
Summary
Children
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Robotics
Background:
- Sensory-motor and motor-sensory integration are crucial for environmental interaction.
- Haptic perception, key to understanding objects through touch, relies on these neural processes.
- Understanding the development of motor-sensory integration is vital for cognitive science.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental trajectory of motor-sensory integration in children.
- To compare haptic perception during active versus passive exploration in developing brains.
- To elucidate the computational mechanisms underlying haptic precision development.
Main Methods:
- Children actively or passively explored virtual objects using robotic guidance.
- Participants judged the curvature of the explored objects.
- Haptic acuity and precision were measured and compared across age groups and conditions.
Main Results:
- Haptic acuity in children reached adult levels only in early adolescence.
- Children exhibited lower haptic precision during active exploration compared to passive motion.
- Exploratory movements acted as a source of noise for the developing haptic system in children.
Conclusions:
- The developing haptic system in children requires mid-adolescence to compensate for self-generated movement noise.
- A noisy efference copy mechanism likely impairs haptic precision in younger brains.
- Mature motor-sensory integration mechanisms enable adults to effectively process self-generated motion for perception.
Related Concept Videos
01:33Somatosensation
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.
01:18Hierarchy of Motor Control
The hierarchy of motor control refers to the different levels of organization and processing involved in controlling movement in the body. These levels range from higher cortical areas involved in planning and decision-making to lower spinal cord reflexes that respond automatically to external stimuli.
01:28Major Somatic Sensory Pathways
Sensory impulses related to touch, pressure, vibration, and proprioception from various body parts, such as the limbs, trunk, neck, and posterior head, travel to the cerebral cortex through the posterior column-medial lemniscus pathway. The pathway’s name derives from the two white-matter tracts that convey the impulses: the spinal cord's posterior column and the brainstem's medial lemniscus. First-order sensory neurons extend their axons into the spinal cord, forming the posterior columns...