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

温度知觉在触觉中很少被研究，因为它是一种比触觉慢得多的感觉，也因为温度感觉被触觉知觉混淆了。然而，这种与其他感官的紧密耦合正是为什么研究它很重要的原因。皮肤温度改变了对触觉暗示的感知，与一个人的情绪有关，影响核心体温，并影响身体表现。这个项目将扩展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相结合的基础知识。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温度调节系统以及温度和心理状态之间联系的理解，从而使虚拟现实中的改进能够增强对焦虑症(如创伤后应激障碍)的干预，提高人类在压力下的表现(例如，第一反应人员和运动员)，以及许多其他可能受益于更现实的虚拟环境的应用(例如，治疗、培训、娱乐)。虽然这种虚拟现实在视觉、听觉和触觉模式上已经可行了几十年，但这项工作代表了热状态下的一个变革性机会。与这项研究相结合，PI将在佛罗里达州坦帕市的科学与工业博物馆(MOSI)开发一个触觉演示和展览，向参观者传授一般的触觉知识，包括热觉，以及神经科学、心理学和系统工程的相关领域。该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反应，特别是当每个输入随着时间的变化而变化时。众所周知，温度感知是高度非线性的；在较低的阈值下，较快的变化比较慢的变化速度更快。PI将评估这种非线性特性如何影响皮肤小区域和大区域对多个温度输入的感知。例如，这种非线性感觉可以使人感觉到温度不断变化，但不会影响整体皮肤温度的变化。PI将使用多个热执行器，其中一些会迅速变热，大多数会缓慢冷却。缓慢下降的执行器将低于感知阈值，不会被感知，但快速增加的执行器将被感知；因此，将有一种温度上升的感觉，但没有净变化。PI的初步研究表明，这种影响可以在小范围内部分感受到，但他认为，当覆盖更大的皮肤区域时，这种影响会更加明显。当使用热执行器覆盖更大的皮肤区域时，他还将测试如何将多个热执行器集成到一个感知中，以及温度如何影响情绪变化(例如，“衣领下的热”和“脊椎下的寒意”)。

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").