Psychophysical investigation and computational modeling of tactile perception

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We take for granted our ability to perceive the external world through the sense of touch, but how does the nervous system accomplish this remarkable feat? We aim to answer this question. Our objectives are to: 1. track the development of the sense of touch in children. We have previously shown that adults with smaller fingers can perceive finer spatial details by touch, probably because smaller fingers have more closely spaced tactile receptors. We will now determine whether children, since their fingers are smaller, have even better tactile spatial perception than adults. We will study children from 6 to 16 years of age. 2. investigate tactile perceptual learning. Can the sense of touch improve through practice? We will train people on challenging tactile tasks, including Braille reading, and track their sense of touch throughout training. One intriguing question that this objective will answer is whether a sighted person who learns Braille will develop a sense of touch equal to that of a blind Braille reader. 3. understand tactile illusions. We have previously published an explanation for illusions of touch, in which rapidly placed taps to the skin are misperceived. Our explanation, if correct, provides important insights into how the brain perceives. We will test the predictions of our explanatory model. 4. create computer programs that "perceive" by touch. Tactile sensation (the neural response to a physical stimulus) begins with the receptors in the skin, but tactile perception (the interpretation of this neural activity) is achieved by the brain. We will develop and test a series of "computational brain" models that interpret the electrical impulses in simulated neurons in order to construct a perception of what has touched the skin. These models hold the promise of providing a complete description of the tactile perceptual process. The proposed research will help to elucidate the mysterious "how" of human tactile perception.