Haptic Exploration in Young, Middle-aged, and Elderly Adults

Kleinman, Joel M.; Brodzinsky, David M.

doi:10.1093/geronj/33.4.521

Cited by 19 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…It has been known for some time that human haptic performance decreases as a function of age [16], but less is known about the neural mechanisms underlying these changes. In a study about haptic performance of adults under conditions were finger movements were restricted, or subjects had to wear gloves, the speed of object identification was more affected than accuracy of identification [46].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is much converging evidence showing broad similarities between visual object recognition and haptic object recognition, which are a consequence of substantial overlaps in the higher-order neural resources required for both types of perception [7], [13]–[15]. As there is only a relatively small body of literature investigating age-related changes in haptics [16], [17], we aimed to investigate the influence of reduced tactile acuity and cognitive capacity on the haptic performance of older adults.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cognitive and Tactile Factors Affecting Human Haptic Performance in Later Life

et al. 2012

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BackgroundVision and haptics are the key modalities by which humans perceive objects and interact with their environment in a target-oriented manner. Both modalities share higher-order neural resources and the mechanisms required for object exploration. Compared to vision, the understanding of haptic information processing is still rudimentary. Although it is known that haptic performance, similar to many other skills, decreases in old age, the underlying mechanisms are not clear. It is yet to be determined to what extent this decrease is related to the age-related loss of tactile acuity or cognitive capacity.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe investigated the haptic performance of 81 older adults by means of a cross-modal object recognition test. Additionally, we assessed the subjects' tactile acuity with an apparatus-based two-point discrimination paradigm, and their cognitive performance by means of the non-verbal Raven-Standard-Progressive matrices test. As expected, there was a significant age-related decline in performance on all 3 tests. With the exception of tactile acuity, this decline was found to be more distinct in female subjects. Correlation analyses revealed a strong relationship between haptic and cognitive performance for all subjects. Tactile performance, on the contrary, was only significantly correlated with male subjects' haptic performance.ConclusionsHaptic object recognition is a demanding task in old age, especially when it comes to the exploration of complex, unfamiliar objects. Our data support a disproportionately higher impact of cognition on haptic performance as compared to the impact of tactile acuity. Our findings are in agreement with studies reporting an increase in co-variation between individual sensory performance and general cognitive functioning in old age.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive and Tactile Factors Affecting Human Haptic Performance in Later Life

et al. 2012

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“…In object recognition, for example, keeping track of the order in which features are received might be difficult for older subjects, particularly if there were time constraints. Kleinman and Brodzinsky (1978) tested subjects in a haptic matching task. They reported that older subjects were less accurate and used less relevant search strategies than did younger subjects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aging and tactile temporal order

Craig

Rhodes

Busey

et al. 2010

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

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Although it is generally held that speed of processing declines with age, there have been few studies in which tactile temporal processing has been examined with older subjects. In the present study, temporal order judgments were obtained from a group of younger subjects (n 28, mean age 23.5 years) and a group of older subjects (n 93, mean age 69.8 years). The subjects judged the temporal order of two patterns presented to the same finger, four patterns presented to the same finger, and two patterns presented to different hands. Depending on the task, the average thresholds for the older subjects ranged from two to five times longer than the thresholds from the younger subjects. In absolute terms, the largest difference between the young and older subjects was seen in correctly identifying the order of four patterns, a difference of more than 500 msec. There was some support for the decline in temporal processing being due in part to a slowing in cognitive processing, and, depending on the task, in part to stimulus persistence and difficulty in pattern identification.

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“…Similarly, Gescheider, Edwards, Lackner, Bolanowski, and Verrillo (1996) also reported a decline in sensitivity with age, whereas there was no effect of age on suprathreshold intensitive difference limens (DLs). A few notable studies have shown similar declines in performance in complex measures of tactile pattern processing, such as haptic or form exploration (Axelrod & Cohen, 1961;Coté & Schaefer, 1981;Kleinman & Brodzinsky, 1978), spatial acuity (Stevens, 1992), or temporal processing (Van Doren, Gescheider, & Verrillo, 1990). The underlying cause of the progressive loss has usually been attributed to physiological changes in the skin itself (e.g., Steinberg & Graber, 1963;Stevens, 1992;Verrillo, 1979) or neurological factors (Lindblom & Verrillo, 1979;Mirsky, Futterman, & Broh-Kahn, 1953;Wahren & Torebjork, 1992).…”

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confidence: 99%