Anorexia Nervosa (AN) patients have a disturbed experience of body size and shape. Previously it has been shown that these body representation disturbances extend to enlarged perception of tactile distances. Here we investigated whether misperception of tactile size could be related to inaccurate elementary somatosensory perception. Tactile size perception was measured with the Tactile Estimati...

This paper presents a study on the effects of tactile fidelitythe degree of exactness with which real-world tactile stimuli are reproducedon the perception of single-finger and whole-hand touch gestures. We developed an armbased tactile display consisting of a four-by-three grid of linear resonant actuator motors to facilitate our investigation. This device supported two extreme levels of tac...

To explore the neural substrates of visual-tactile crossmodal integration during motion direction discrimination, we conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging with 15 subjects. We initially performed independent unimodal visual and tactile experiments involving motion direction matching tasks. Visual motion discrimination activated the occipital cortex bilaterally, extending to the poster...

Tactile perception is typically considered the result of cortical interpretation of afferent signals from a network of mechanical sensors underneath the skin. Yet, tactile illusion studies suggest that tactile perception can be elicited without afferent signals from mechanoceptors. Therefore, the extent that tactile perception arises from isomorphic mapping of tactile afferents onto the somatos...

In a series of experimental investigations of a subject with a unilateral impairment of tactile object recognition without impaired tactile sensation, several issues were addressed. First, is tactile agnosia secondary to a general impairment of spatial cognition? On tests of spatial ability, including those directed at the same spatial integration process assumed to be taxed by tactile object r...

BACKGROUND Tactile defensiveness in children is associated with difficult social relations, emotional dysregulation, and inattention. However, there are no studies of lead exposure and tactile defensiveness in children or animals in spite of the fact that lead exposure is also associated with inattention and emotional dysregulation. OBJECTIVES In this study we tested whether lead exposure ind...

People with autism and Asperger syndrome are anecdotally said to be hypersensitive to touch. In two experiments, we measured tactile thresholds and suprathreshold tactile sensitivity in a group of adults with Asperger syndrome. In the first experiment, tactile perceptual thresholds were measured. Two frequencies of vibrotactile stimulation were used: 30 and 200 Hz. The results demonstrated sign...

Robotic devices – limited to the structured environment of manufacturing plants until few years ago – are slowly making way into human life, which has led to the emergence of interaction and learning issues in robots. Such issues are important for future robot to be able to learn autonomously and to interact safely with the environment i.e. without causing any harm to it or to the objects with ...

Background: Brain injuries are a major cause of mortality and disability. Sensory stimulation can reduce the complications of brain injuries in the patients.  Objectives: To compare the effect of foot reflexology with tactile stimulation of the hand on level of consciousness and physiological indicators in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients  Materials & Methods: 60 TBI patients hospitalize...

The “Cognitive Science of Tactile Graphics Project” at the University of Sussex is studying how experienced and novice users of tactile graphics read diagrams by touch. One goal of the project is to design novel tactile formats that specifically support ready access to, and rich interpretations of, information in tactile materials by people with visual impairment. This presentation focuses upon...