Lingual vibrotactile sensation magnitudes: comparison of suprathreshold responses for three different age ranges

Vibrotactile magnitude scaling was performed on three different age groups of six normal subjects each. The psychophysical method of magnitude production was used for the scaling of vibratory stimuli applied to the anterior dorsal surface of the tongue. The older subjects produced shallower upper-slope functions than the younger subjects and also showed greater response variability. Behavioral, anatomical, and physiological factors are discussed.