Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 19, 2026
13:44
Haptic/Graphic Rehabilitation: Integrating a Robot into a Virtual Environment Library and Applying it to Stroke Therapy
Published on: August 8, 2011
13.8K
Human impedance modulation to improve visuo-haptic perception
Xiaoxiao Cheng1,2, Shixian Shen1, Ekaterina Ivanova1,3
1Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
Plos Computational Biology
|May 9, 2025
Summary
Humans adapt muscle activation to optimize sensory information for environmental interaction. Muscle coactivation increases with haptic noise but decreases with visual noise, balancing information gain and effort.
Area of Science:
- Human motor control
- Sensory integration
- Robotics
Background:
- Humans actively control muscle activation to interact with their environment.
- The role of muscle activation in sensing environmental properties remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how muscle activation adapts to visual and haptic information during target tracking.
- To understand if humans optimize sensory input for better environmental perception.
Main Methods:
- Participants tracked a random target using a robotic interface.
- Muscle activation patterns were analyzed in response to varying visual and haptic noise levels.
Main Results:
- Muscle coactivation increased with haptic noise and decreased with visual noise.
- This pattern suggests a strategy to regulate motion guidance and filter sensory noise.
- Results align with a model optimizing visuo-haptic information and effort.
Conclusions:
- Muscle activation serves an active sensing role, adapting to optimize sensory information intake.
- The optimal information and effort (OIE) model explains adaptive muscle activity in human-environment interaction.
- Findings can inform the design of human-robot interaction systems.
Related Concept Videos
00:46Feedback Inhibition
Biochemical reactions are occurring constantly in cells, converting starting substances to different products, usually with the help of enzymes that speed the reactions. Without enzymes, it would take far too long for most reactions to occur to be useful to the cell!
01:26Introduction to Special Senses
Sensory receptors play an integral part in comprehending our external and internal environments. They receive diverse stimuli, converting them into the nervous system's electrochemical signals. This conversion occurs as the stimulus alters the sensory neuron's cell membrane potential, instigating the generation of an action potential. This action potential is subsequently transmitted to the central nervous system (CNS), which integrates with other sensory data or higher cognitive functions.
01:14Design Example: Resistive Touchscreen
A device engineer plays a crucial role in designing user interfaces for mobile devices. One such interface is the resistive touchscreen, which fundamentally consists of two metallic layers: a flexible upper layer and a rigid lower layer, separated by a narrow gap. The high resistance between these two layers is a key characteristic of this design.
When a user touches the screen, the two layers make contact at a specific point known as the touchpoint. This contact reduces the resistance between...
When a user touches the screen, the two layers make contact at a specific point known as the touchpoint. This contact reduces the resistance between...
01:21Sensation
Sensory receptors are specialized neurons that respond to specific types of external stimuli, initiating the process known as sensation. This occurs when sensory input, such as light entering the eye, is detected by these receptors, causing chemical changes in the cells of the retina. These cells then convert the sensory stimulus into action potentials that are transmitted to the central nervous system, a process termed transduction.
Absolute thresholds can quantify the sensitivity of sensory...
Absolute thresholds can quantify the sensitivity of sensory...
01:28Perception
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.
Bottom-up processing begins at the sensory level, where receptors detect external environmental stimuli. These could include the tactile sensation of...
Bottom-up processing begins at the sensory level, where receptors detect external environmental stimuli. These could include the tactile sensation of...
01:27Tactile and Chemical Senses
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...