Mechano-acoustical Discrimination of Hairy Fabrics from Neurosensorial Criteria

Abstract

The touch of fabric is a very complex subject. In this study, the human being was considered as a touch sensor. The tactile afferent messages elicited by the mechanoreceptors of the skin in response to textile stimuli were studied. These messages were recorded on non-sleeping human subjects, by a method named microneurography. In a previous paper, it was shown that a unitary activity of fast adapting or slowly adapting cutaneous receptors can make the difference between the same fabric with different hairiness i.e. before and after emerizing process with different intensities.