The effect of stimulus duration on frequency-response functions in the Pacinian (P) channel

Psychophysical experiments on human observers and physiological measurements on Pacinian corpuscles (PCs) isolated from cat mesentery were performed to explain certain discrepancies in the psychophysical-physiological model (Bolanowski et al., 1988) for the sense of touch in the vibrotactle Pacinian (P) channel. The model was based on correlations among the psychophysical frequency response obtained on human glabrous skin and physiological frequency-response functions measured on two PC preparations: PC fibers innervating human glabrous skin (Johansson et al., 1982) and PCs isolated from cat mesentery. The three frequency-response functions were qualitatively similar. However, the low-frequency slope for the human PC fibers differed from the slopes for the psychophysical and cat mesentery PC functions by being 3 dB/octave less steep. This discrepancy can be explained theoretically by differences in methodology involving the effect of stimulus duration and the property of temporal summation known to exist in the P channel (i.e., a 3-dB increase in sensitivity per doubling of stimulus duration). To test this, experiments were performed using two methods of stimulation: (1) a constant stimulus duration for different test frequencies, as generally used in this laboratory; and (2) a constant number of stimulus cycles (n = 5) for each test frequency as used by Johansson et al. The method of least squares was used to calculate the low-frequency (50 to 150-Hz) slopes of individual psychophysical and physiological functions. The mean slopes that resulted from using the two methods of stimulation were consistent with the theoretical expectations.