Vibrotactile adaptation on the face

Hollins, Mark; Delemos, K. A.; Goble, Alan K.

doi:10.3758/bf03211612

Cited by 38 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…The time-course of vibrotactile adaptation has been studied in a number of psychophysical studies, either by measuring absolute thresholds at various intervals after the onset of the adapting stimulus (Hahn 1968a,b;Hollins et al 1990Hollins et al , 1991 or by tracking the subjective intensity of a suprathreshold stimulus over time (Berglund and Berglund 1970;Hahn 1968b). Because psychophysical absolute thresholds depend on a small group of peripheral fibers, perhaps even a single one (Johansson and Vallbo 1979), the time-course of adaptation and recovery of (psychophysical) absolute thresholds is more comparable with that of afferent thresholds than is the time-course of adaptation and recovery of sensation magnitude, which is mediated by a larger population of peripheral fibers.…”

Section: Comparing Psychophysics and Neurophysiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Time-Course of Vibratory Adaptation and Recovery in Cutaneous Mechanoreceptive Afferents

Leung¹,

Bensmaı̈a

Hsiao³

et al. 2005

Journal of Neurophysiology

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. Timecourse of vibratory adaptation and recovery in cutaneous mechanoreceptive afferents. J Neurophysiol 94: 3037-3045, 2005; doi:10.1152/jn.00001.2005. Extended suprathreshold vibratory stimulation applied to the skin results in a desensitization of cutaneous mechanoreceptive afferents. In a companion paper, we describe the dependence of the threshold shift on the parameters of the adapting stimulus and discuss neural mechanisms underlying afferent adaptation. Here we describe the time-course of afferent adaptation and recovery. We found that absolute and entrainment thresholds rise and fall exponentially during adaptation and recovery with time constants that vary with fiber type. slowly adapting type I (SA1) afferents adapt most rapidly, and pacinian (PC) afferents adapt most slowly, whereas rapidly adapting (RA) afferents exhibit intermediate rates of adaptation; SA1 fibers also recover more rapidly from adaptation than RA and PC fibers. We also showed that threshold adaptation is accompanied by a shift in the timing of the spikes within individual cycles of the adapting stimulus (i.e., a shift in the impulse phase). We invoked an integrate-and-fire model to explore possible mechanisms underlying afferent adaptation. Finally, we found that the time-course of afferent adaptation is more rapid than that of its psychophysical counterpart, as is the time-course of recovery from adaptation, suggesting that central factors play a role in the psychophysical phenomenon. I N T R O D U C T I O NExtended exposure to a suprathreshold vibratory stimulus applied to the skin results in a reversible decrement in the sensitivity of cutaneous mechanoreceptive afferents (Bensmaïa et al. 2005). In a companion paper, we discussed the dependence of afferent adaptation on the parameters of the conditioning stimulus. Specifically, we showed that the shift in the absolute (I 0 ) and entrainment (I 1 ) thresholds increases as the adapting amplitude or frequency increases. Furthermore, as the effects of adaptation on I 0 and I 1 were found to be approximately additive, particularly in rapidly adapting (RA) fibers, we speculated that adaptation operates on the spiking threshold of the afferent rather than on the transducer sensitivity of the receptor.The time-course along which afferent adaptation and recovery operate is largely unknown, in part because the phenomenon itself has been difficult to study for reasons discussed in the companion paper (Bensmaïa et al. 2005). Recording from RA afferents in monkeys and cats, Whitsel et al. (2000) observed a slight drop in mean spike rate within the first few seconds of a vibratory stimulus. The observed decline in responsivity was accompanied by a slight increase in the phase angle of the entrained response within the first 100 -500 ms of the stimulus. Recording the responses from PC fibers in cat mesentery, O'Mara et al. (1988) found that the spike rates recovered to their preadaptation levels along approximately exponential time-courses, with time constants Ͻ30 s. In this study, we investi...

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Section: Comparing Psychophysics and Neurophysiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To compare the time-courses of psychophysical and peripheral adaptation, we fitted exponential functions (analogous to that shown in Eq. 1) to the time-courses of psychophysical adaptation obtained from a pair of adaptation studies (Hollins et al 1990(Hollins et al , 1991.…”

Section: Comparing Psychophysics and Neurophysiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Time-Course of Vibratory Adaptation and Recovery in Cutaneous Mechanoreceptive Afferents

Leung¹,

Bensmaı̈a

Hsiao³

et al. 2005

Journal of Neurophysiology

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“…Kirman (l974a) argued that lower values can be attributed to increased sharpness of stimulus localization rather than to other parameters, such as the distance between skin sites. At least three factors in the present study may have contributed to a particularly high degree of sharpness in stimulus localization: (1) a probe diameter, one-half the size of the smallest employed in previous work (Kirman, 1974a); (2) the use ofsquare-wave pulses to drive the probes (Kirman, 1974a); and (3) the absence of the Pacinian channel, which imparts the quality of diffuse hum to percepts evoked by vibrotactile stimuli (Barlow, 1987;Hollins et al, 1991;Sherrick et al, 1990). the delay between activations of the two rows was less critical.…”

Section: Llll2mentioning

confidence: 84%

“…First, no other investigation has systematically studied apparent motion evoked by stimuli applied to facial skin (but see Essick, McGuire, Joseph, & Franzen, 1992). Although test-site location has been shown to have minimal impact on percepts of apparent motion (thigh, forearm, back, stomach, palm, and fingertip have all been studied; Kirman, 1974a;Sherrick, 1968), the receptor mechanisms in facial skin differ from those on sites studied previously-the most notable departure being the absence of the Pacinian channel (Barlow, 1987;Hollins, Delemos, & Goble, 1991). The lack of this channel alone was hypothesized to result in a sharper localization of tactile sensation (Sherrick, Cholewiak, & Collins, 1990), which, in turn, might lower the optimal delay between the onset of stimulation of successive sites for percepts of apparent motion (Kirman, 1974a).…”

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confidence: 99%

Evocation and characterization of percepts of apparent motion on the face

Szaniszlo

Essick

Kelly

et al. 1998

Perception & Psychophysics

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The percepts evoked by sequential stimulation of sites in close spatial proximity (::=; 2.5 em) on the face were studied. Both method-of-limits and magnitude-estimation procedures were used to identify and characterize alterations in the percepts produced by systematic changes in the temporal and spatial parameters of the sequence. Each site was stimulated by a vertically oriented row of miniature vibrating probes. Apparent motion was consistently perceived when the delay between the onsets of sequentially activated rows (interstimulus onset interval, or ISOl) fell within a relatively narrow range of values, the lower limit of which approximated 5 msec. Both the upper limit and the perceived smoothness and continuity of the motion percepts (goodness of motion) increased with the duration for which each row stimulated the skin over the range evaluated, 15-185 msec. For the successive activation of only two rows, goodness of motion was not influenced by changes in their separation from 0.4 to 2.5 cm. The ISOl values at which magnitude estimates of goodness of motion were highest increased with the duration for which each row stimulated the skin. As such, maximum goodness of motion decreased with increases in the apparent velocity of motion. When the number of sequentially activated rows was increased from two to four or more, the quality of the motion percepts improved. For the successive activation of multiple closely spaced rows, values of ISOI at which numerical estimates of goodness of motion were highest approximated integral fractions of the duration for which each row stimulated the skin. In this situation, the probes rose and fell in a regular, step-locked rhythm to simulate an edge-like or rectangular object moving across the skin. The goodness of motion so attained was relatively independent of the apparent velocity of motion.The movement of a natural object across the skin evokes a rich perceptual experience and one that is acutely sensitive to subtle changes in the physical parameters of stimulation (see, e.g., Essick, Afferica, et al., 1988;Essick, Dolan, Turvey, Kelly, & Whitsel, 1990;Essick, Whitsel, Dolan, & Kelly, 1989). The richness of the percept is hypothesized to reflect, in part, the complexity of the stimulation. For example, a moving brush stimulus not only translates across but also laterally stretches the skin. The two mechanical actions (translation and stretch) generate unique stresses and strains, to which peripheral neural encoding mechanisms are differentially sensitive (Edin, Essick, Trulsson, & Olsson, 1995). To better understand tactile motion perception, we studied the percepts evoked by stimuli that elicit response patterns in the cutaneous mechanoreceptors that are much simpler than those elicited by a natural moving stimulus (see Essick, Rath, Kelly, James, & Murray, 1996). These stimuli were generated by a dense-array tactile stimulator that consisted of a matrix of independently controlled probes, each of which vibrated a small area of skin. With this device, a stimulus tha...

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“…They found that the time required to induce adaptation and the time required to recover from adaptation were reduced compared with the results of studies using psychophysical methods to assess changes in detection threshold (Gescheider and Wright 1969;Hollins et al 1990Hollins et al , 1991. This led the authors to conclude that changes at the level of the central nervous system could contribute to the change in detection threshold.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peripheral vs. central determinants of vibrotactile adaptation

Klöcker

Gueorguiev

Thonnard

et al. 2016

Journal of Neurophysiology

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Klöcker A, Gueorguiev D, Thonnard JL, Mouraux A. Peripheral vs. central determinants of vibrotactile adaptation. J Neurophysiol 115: 685-691, 2016. First published November 18, 2015 doi:10.1152/jn.00519.2015.-Long-lasting mechanical vibrations applied to the skin induce a reversible decrease in the perception of vibration at the stimulated skin site. This phenomenon of vibrotactile adaptation has been studied extensively, yet there is still no clear consensus on the mechanisms leading to vibrotactile adaptation. In particular, the respective contributions of 1) changes affecting mechanical skin impedance, 2) peripheral processes, and 3) central processes are largely unknown. Here we used direct electrical stimulation of nerve fibers to bypass mechanical transduction processes and thereby explore the possible contribution of central vs. peripheral processes to vibrotactile adaptation. Three experiments were conducted. In the first, adaptation was induced with mechanical vibration of the fingertip (51-or 251-Hz vibration delivered for 8 min, at 40ϫ detection threshold). In the second, we attempted to induce adaptation with transcutaneous electrical stimulation of the median nerve (51-or 251-Hz constant-current pulses delivered for 8 min, at 1.5ϫ detection threshold). Vibrotactile detection thresholds were measured before and after adaptation. Mechanical stimulation induced a clear increase of vibrotactile detection thresholds. In contrast, thresholds were unaffected by electrical stimulation. In the third experiment, we assessed the effect of mechanical adaptation on the detection thresholds to transcutaneous electrical nerve stimuli, measured before and after adaptation. Electrical detection thresholds were unaffected by the mechanical adaptation. Taken together, our results suggest that vibrotactile adaptation is predominantly the consequence of peripheral mechanoreceptor processes and/or changes in biomechanical properties of the skin.

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Vibrotactile adaptation on the face

Cited by 38 publications

References 18 publications

Time-Course of Vibratory Adaptation and Recovery in Cutaneous Mechanoreceptive Afferents

Time-Course of Vibratory Adaptation and Recovery in Cutaneous Mechanoreceptive Afferents

Evocation and characterization of percepts of apparent motion on the face

Peripheral vs. central determinants of vibrotactile adaptation

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