Papers

Peer-reviewed
2010

Raised-angle discrimination under passive finger movement

PERCEPTION
  • Jinglong Wu
  • ,
  • Jiajia Yang
  • ,
  • Takashi Ogasa

Volume
39
Number
7
First page
993
Last page
1006
Language
English
Publishing type
Research paper (scientific journal)
DOI
10.1068/p6264
Publisher
PION LTD

The characteristics of raised-line drawing discrimination can be defined as the sum of the discriminability of the length, curvature, and angles of the edges. The size of the angle between two edges constitutes an important feature of these tactile stimuli. In the first experiment, five standard angles (30 degrees, 60 degrees, 90 degrees, 120 degrees, and 150 degrees) and twenty comparison angles for each standard angle were used to investigate the human capacity for tactile discrimination of raised angles by passive finger movement. The subjects in this study were asked to identify the larger angle of each pair by passive finger movement. We found that the threshold doubled when the standard angle was increased from 30 degrees to 90 degrees; however, the threshold remained unchanged when the standard angle was greater than 90 degrees. In the second experiment, to investigate the influence of the endpoints on angle discriminability, we used one standard angle (60 degrees) and seven comparison angles that changed in four bisector orientations. The results indicate that cutaneous feedback from the local apex and endpoints of the angle contributed to the discrimination of acute angles. Taken together, these results suggest that, when an acute angle is presented, both local apex and endpoint informations are used, while cutaneous mechanoreceptors rely more on apex information to discriminate the angle size when an obtuse angle is presented.

Link information
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1068/p6264
PubMed
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20842975
Web of Science
https://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcAuth=JSTA_CEL&SrcApp=J_Gate_JST&DestLinkType=FullRecord&KeyUT=WOS:000281270900012&DestApp=WOS_CPL
ID information
  • DOI : 10.1068/p6264
  • ISSN : 0301-0066
  • Pubmed ID : 20842975
  • Web of Science ID : WOS:000281270900012

Export
BibTeX RIS