CHS: Small: Investigation of Dynamic Thermal Perception over Large Skin Areas

温度感知在触觉学中很少被研究，因为它是一种比触觉感知慢得多的感觉，也因为温度感知被触觉感知混淆。 然而，这种与其他感官的紧密耦合正是学习的重要性。 皮肤温度改变触觉线索的感知，与一个人的情绪有关，影响核心体温，并影响身体表现。 这个项目将扩大我们关于人类感觉运动系统如何感知温度以及这些温度如何与情绪耦合的基本知识。 项目成果将把热感知与温度变化的现实分开。 这反过来将改变我们对身体中的热调节系统以及温度和心理状态之间的联系的理解，从而能够改善对焦虑症（如创伤后应激障碍）的虚拟现实增强干预，提高人类在压力下的表现（例如，第一响应者和运动员），以及可以受益于更逼真的虚拟环境的许多其它应用（例如，治疗、训练、娱乐）。 虽然几十年来这种虚拟现实在视觉、听觉和触觉模式中已经可行，但这项工作代表了热机制中的变革机会。 结合这项研究，PI将开发一个触觉演示和展览，安装在佛罗里达坦帕的科学与工业博物馆（MOSI），这将向参观者介绍触觉学的一般知识，包括热感知，以及神经科学，心理学，这个项目的目标是了解局部和大面积皮肤上的温度输入，以及它们如何影响情绪。响应，特别是当每个输入随时间变化时。 温度感知是高度非线性的;在较低的阈值下感知到的变化速度比变化速度慢。 PI将评估这种非线性特性如何影响皮肤的小区域和大区域中的多个温度输入的感知。 例如，这种非线性感知可以实现对不断变化的温度的感觉，但不影响整体皮肤温度变化。 PI将采用多个热致动器，其中一些会迅速变热，而大多数会缓慢冷却。 缓慢降低的致动器将低于感知阈值并且将不会被感知，但是快速增加的致动器将被感知;因此，将存在温度增加的感觉，但是没有净变化。 PI的初步研究表明，这种效果在小范围内可以部分感受到，但他认为，当覆盖更大的皮肤区域时，这种效果会更加明显。 当用热致动器覆盖更大面积的皮肤时，他还将测试多个热致动器如何集成到单一感知中，以及温度如何影响情绪变化（例如，“衣领下的热”和“脊背下的寒意”）。

Temperature perception has been studied infrequently in haptics because it is a much slower sense than tactile perception and also because temperature sensations are confounded by tactile perceptions. Yet, this tight coupling to other senses is precisely why it is important to study. Skin temperature alters the perception of tactile cues, is related to one's emotions, influences core body temperature, and affects physical performance. This project will expand our fundamental knowledge about how the human sensorimotor system perceives temperatures and how these temperatures couple with emotions. Project outcomes will separate thermal perception from the reality of temperature change. This in turn will transform our understanding of thermal regulation systems in the body and connections between temperature and psychological state, thereby enabling improvements in virtual reality enhanced interventions for anxiety disorders (such as post-traumatic stress disorder), for increased human performance under stress (e.g., first responders and athletes), and for numerous other applications which could benefit from more realistic virtual environments (e.g., therapy, training, entertainment). While such virtual reality has been feasible in the visual, auditory, and tactile modalities for decades, this work represents a transformative opportunity in the thermal regime. In conjunction with this research, the PI will develop a haptic demonstration and exhibit for installation at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Tampa, Florida, which will teach visitors about haptics in general, including thermal perception, and the related areas of neuroscience, psychology, and system engineering.The goal of this project is to understand temperature inputs applied over both localized and large areas of the skin and how they affect emotional responses, particularly when each input is changing over time. Temperature perception is known to be highly nonlinear; faster changes are perceived at lower thresholds than slower rates of change. The PI will evaluate how this nonlinear characteristic affects the perception of multiple temperature inputs in small and large regions of the skin. For example, this nonlinear perception could enable the sensation of a constantly changing temperature, but without affecting an overall skin temperature change. The PI will employ multiple thermal actuators, with a few getting hotter quickly and most cooling slowly. The slowly-decreasing actuators will be below the perceptual threshold and will not be perceived, but the quickly-increasing actuators will be perceived; thus, there will be a feeling of increasing temperature, but with no net change. The PI's preliminary studies show that this effect can be partially felt at the small scale, but he believes the effect will be more pronounced when larger skin areas are covered. When covering larger areas of skin with thermal actuators, he will also test how multiple thermal actuators are integrated into a single perception and how temperature affects emotional changes (e.g., "hot under the collar" and "a chill down the spine").