Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 15, 2026

Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator TSPAS
Published on: July 30, 2020
Brain discriminative cognition on the perception of touching different fabric using fingers actively
1Key Laboratory of Textile Science & Technology, Ministry of Education, Donghua University, Shanghai, China.
Background/Purpose:
Using touching movement of fingers, human subjects can discriminate various tactile perception of fabric. As a continuation of the previous study, we aim to further investigate the discriminative mechanisms of the brain cognition to tactile stimulation of different fabric.
Methods:
We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to observe the brain responses when the subjects touched linen fabric, as well as revisited the data from the previous silk fabric. And all the subjects were asked to compare the perception of touching the two fabric.
Results:
Combining the results of brain responses and perception comparison, we found that activation in the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) and the secondary somatosensory cortex (SII), especially parietal operculum 1 (OP1) in this region, could discriminate this two kinds of fabric distinctly.
Conclusion:
It is suggested that the functional regions involved in the macrogeometric properties of fabric (such as pliability) is in SI, and the perception of microgeometry of fabric surface (such as roughness and glutinousness) in SII, especially in the sub-region OP1 of the OP. Besides, activation in motor cortex can be a reference for the characterization of the brain cognition on the tactile stimulation of fabric.
Related Concept Videos
Somatosensation
Tactile and Chemical Senses
Thermosensation
Sensory Functions of the Skin
There are two main categories of receptors on the skin: capsulated and non-capsulated. The non-capsulated ones are mainly the pain receptors. The capsulated ones can be further categorized based on the...
Perception
Bottom-up processing begins at the sensory level, where receptors detect external environmental stimuli. These could include the tactile sensation of...
Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System
The receptor level:
The receptor level is the first stage of sensation. It involves the detection of a stimulus by specialized sensory receptors. The stimulus must arrive within the receptor's receptive field. Next, the receptor converts the energy of the...

