Proposal of the Stretch Detection Hypothesis of the Meissner Corpuscle

In order to realize artificial tactile sensation, we are researching the natural nerve activity timing of mechanoreceptors. Considering the energy conversion system of the Meissner corpuscle, we insist that the corpuscles encode the normal strain, particularly detecting horizontal normal strain. We observed a clear difference in the thresholds between the pushing and pulling cases. This finding suggests that horizontal stretch preferentially induces nerve activity in the Meissner corpuscle.