Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Factors affecting tactile spatial acuity

J C Craig1, J M Kisner

  • 1Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington 47405, USA. CRAIGJ@INDIANA.EDU

Somatosensory & Motor Research
|May 16, 1998
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Effect on non-vascular outcomes of lowering LDL cholesterol in patients with chronic kidney disease: results from the Study of Heart and Renal Protection.

BMC nephrology·2017
Same author

Incidence and Predictors of Cancer Following Kidney Transplantation in Childhood.

American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons·2017
Same author

Obesity and hypertension in Australian young people: results from the Australian Health Survey 2011-2012.

Internal medicine journal·2016
Same author

Use of electromyography to detect muscle exhaustion in finishing barrows fed ractopamine HCl.

Journal of animal science·2016
Same author

The differential effect of socio-economic status, birth weight and gender on body mass index in Australian Aboriginal Children.

International journal of obesity (2005)·2016
Same author

Vision is superior to touch in shape perception even with equivalent peripheral input.

Journal of neurophysiology·2015
Same journal

Posture dependent changes in perceptual threshold during light touch foot sole stimulation.

Somatosensory & motor research·2026
Same journal

Transcriptomic mechanisms of lumbar sympathectomy improving cold allodynia of nerve injury in rat.

Somatosensory & motor research·2026
Same journal

Assessing physical activity and balance challenges in children with obstetric brachial plexus palsy.

Somatosensory & motor research·2026
Same journal

Characteristic differences in somatosensory gating between adolescents and adults.

Somatosensory & motor research·2026
Same journal

Disappearing hemispheric lateralization in tactile habituation: an electrophysiological approach.

Somatosensory & motor research·2025
Same journal

Textured foot orthotics and proprioception: augmenting cutaneous feedback to improve joint position sense accuracy.

Somatosensory & motor research·2025
See all related articles

Tactile spatial acuity improves with wider grating grooves and larger contactors on the fingerpad. This enhanced sensitivity is due to increased contactor size and reduced edge interference, not just larger contact area.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Human Sensory Perception
  • Biophysics

Background:

  • Tactile spatial acuity is crucial for object manipulation and environmental interaction.
  • Previous research indicates grating groove width influences performance in tactile orientation tasks.
  • Understanding factors affecting tactile sensitivity is key to prosthetics and human-computer interfaces.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how groove width and contactor size/configuration impact tactile spatial acuity.
  • To determine the underlying mechanisms responsible for changes in sensitivity.
  • To correlate psychophysical findings with neurophysiological data.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a grating orientation task to measure tactile spatial acuity on the fingerpad.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Systematically varied groove width, contactor size, and groove continuity.
  • Conducted additional measurements to isolate factors contributing to sensitivity changes.

    • Main Results:

    • Tactile sensitivity significantly improved with wider grooves and larger contactors.
    • Increased sensitivity was attributed to greater linear extent and reduced edge interference of larger contactors.
    • Continuous grooves elicited higher sensitivity than discontinuous ones, and groove end points alone were less effective.

    Conclusions:

    • Tactile spatial acuity is modulated by both spatial (groove width, contactor size) and intensive factors.
    • Larger contactors enhance sensitivity through increased linear extent and minimized edge interference.
    • Findings align with peripheral neurophysiological recordings, suggesting specific neural processing mechanisms.