Tactile spatial acuity at the human fingertip and lip

Sathian, K.; Zangaladze, Andro

doi:10.1212/wnl.46.5.1464

Cited by 110 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…We found further that acuity worsens from index to middle to ring fingertips, consistent with previous reports show- ing significant effects or trends in this direction (Sathian and Zangaladze, 1996;Vega-Bermudez and Johnson, 2001;Grant et al, 2006;Duncan and Boynton, 2007).…”

Section: Effects Of Test Site Sex and Agesupporting

confidence: 92%

“…As previously reported (Van Boven and Johnson, 1994;Sathian and Zangaladze, 1996), we found that acuity on the lips exceeds that on the fingertips. We found further that acuity worsens from index to middle to ring fingertips, consistent with previous reports show- ing significant effects or trends in this direction (Sathian and Zangaladze, 1996;Vega-Bermudez and Johnson, 2001;Grant et al, 2006;Duncan and Boynton, 2007).…”

Section: Effects Of Test Site Sex and Agesupporting

confidence: 89%

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Tactile Spatial Acuity Enhancement in Blindness: Evidence for Experience-Dependent Mechanisms

Wong¹,

Gnanakumaran²,

Goldreich³

2011

J. Neurosci.

153

115

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Tactile spatial acuity is enhanced in blindness, according to several studies, but the cause of this enhancement has been controversial. Two competing hypotheses are the tactile experience hypothesis (reliance on the sense of touch drives tactile-acuity enhancement) and the visual deprivation hypothesis (the absence of vision itself drives tactile-acuity enhancement). Here, we performed experiments to distinguish between these two hypotheses. We used force-controlled grating orientation tasks to compare the passive (finger stationary) tactile spatial acuity of 28 profoundly blind and 55 normally sighted humans on the index, middle, and ring fingers of each hand, and on the lips. The tactile experience hypothesis predicted that blind participants would outperform the sighted on the fingers, and that Braille reading would correlate with tactile acuity. The visual deprivation hypothesis predicted that blind participants would outperform the sighted on fingers and lips. Consistent with the tactile experience hypothesis, the blind significantly outperformed the sighted on all fingers, but not on the lips. Additionally, among blind participants, proficient Braille readers on their preferred reading index finger outperformed nonreaders. Finally, proficient Braille readers performed better with their preferred reading index finger than with the opposite index finger, and their acuity on the preferred reading finger correlated with their weekly reading time. These results clearly implicate reliance on the sense of touch as the trigger for tactile spatial acuity enhancement in the blind, and suggest the action of underlying experience-dependent neural mechanisms such as somatosensory and/or cross-modal cortical plasticity.

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Section: Effects Of Test Site Sex and Agesupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Effects Of Test Site Sex and Agesupporting

confidence: 89%

Tactile Spatial Acuity Enhancement in Blindness: Evidence for Experience-Dependent Mechanisms

Wong¹,

Gnanakumaran²,

Goldreich³

2011

J. Neurosci.

153

115

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Return to normal performance on the GR/OR task closely paralleled the rate of reinnervation of the primary afferent fibers, as well as the subject's self-report of normal sensory function (Van Boven & Johnson, 1994b). The GR/OR task has also been used as a measure of spatial acuity at a number of different locations on the skin that are known to vary in their density of innervation (Craig, 1999;Craig & Kisner, 1998;Essock, Krebs, & Prather, 1997;Gibson & Craig, 2002;Patel, Essick, & Kelly, 1997;Sathian & Zangaladze, 1996;Van Boven & Johnson, 1994a). In each case, performance on the GR/OR task roughly correlated with changes in density of innervation of the primary afferent fibers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 82%

Tactile spatial sensitivity and anisotropy

Gibson

Craig

2005

Perception & Psychophysics

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“…Several mechanisms have been proposed for tactile spatial acuity, including peripheral innervation density (Van Boven & Johnson, 1994), cortical magnification (Duncan & Boynton, 2007;Sathian & Zangaladze, 1996;Tegenthoff et al, 2005), and RF geometry in SI (Cody et al, 2008;Gibson & Craig, 2005). However, the relationship between measures of tactile spatial acuity and measures of Weber's illusion is not clear.…”

Section: Potential Neural Mechanisms Of Weber's Illusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental body representations retain homuncular shape distortions: Evidence from Weber’s illusion

Miller

Longo

Saygın

2016

Consciousness and Cognition

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2 Highlights We compared the shape of body part representations underlying Weber's illusion. We found that the represented shape of both the arm and hand was highly distorted. The shape of the arm representation was more distorted than the hand. Mental body representations retain shape distortions characterizing the somatosensory homunculus. 3 AbstractMental body representations underlying tactile perception do not accurately reflect the body's true morphology. For example, perceived tactile distance is dependent on both the body part being touched and the stimulus orientation, a phenomenon called Weber's illusion. These findings suggest the presence of size and shape distortions, respectively. However, whereas each morphological feature is typically measured in isolation, a complete morphological characterization requires the concurrent measurement of both size and shape. We did so in three experiments, manipulating both the stimulated body parts (hand; forearm) and stimulus orientation while requiring participants to make tactile distance judgments. We found that the forearm was significantly more distorted than the hand lengthwise but not widthwise. Effects of stimulus orientation are thought to reflect receptive field anisotropies in primary somatosensory cortex. The results of the present study therefore suggest that mental body representations retain homuncular shape distortions that characterize early stages of somatosensory processing.

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Tactile spatial acuity at the human fingertip and lip

Cited by 110 publications

References 3 publications

Tactile Spatial Acuity Enhancement in Blindness: Evidence for Experience-Dependent Mechanisms

Tactile Spatial Acuity Enhancement in Blindness: Evidence for Experience-Dependent Mechanisms

Tactile spatial sensitivity and anisotropy

Mental body representations retain homuncular shape distortions: Evidence from Weber’s illusion

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