Temporal frequency in tactile roughness perception

粗糙度的触觉感知依赖于皮肤和表面之间的横向运动，但对与粗糙度感知相关的刺激变量的研究未能找到时间因素的实质性证据。这个项目询问纹理刺激的时间频率是否会影响对粗糙度的感知。关于触觉粗糙度知觉部分依赖于时间因素的假设，将用三种方法进行研究。首先，当时间频率被作为自变量操纵时，正常的人类志愿者将执行两种心理物理任务中的任何一种。接下来，我们将研究刺激频率在躯体感觉皮层神经元中的表现。最后，许多研究已经将阅读困难与高频信息特有的多模式感觉缺陷联系在一起。根据这一证据，患有阅读障碍的志愿者将使用不同频率的纹理刺激执行心理物理辨别任务。这个项目不仅有助于理解纹理的触觉编码，而且有助于理解阅读障碍的感觉差异。

The tactile perception of roughness depends on lateral movement between the skin and the surface, yet studies of the stimulus variables relevant to roughness perception have failed to find substantial evidence for temporal factors. This project asks whether the temporal frequency of a textured stimulus affects roughness perception. The hypothesis that tactile roughness perception depends partially on temporal factors will be investigated using three approaches. First, normal human volunteers will perform either of two psychophysical tasks as temporal frequency is manipulated as an independent variable. Next, the representation of stimulus frequency in somatosensory cortical neurons will be investigated. Finally, numerous studies have linked dyslexia to a mufti- modal sensory deficit specific for high-frequency information. In light of this evidence, volunteers with dyslexia will perform a psychophysical discrimination task using textured stimuli of varying frequencies. This project will contribute not only to the understanding of tactile coding of texture, but also to the understanding of sensory differences in dyslexia.