Computational and Psychophysical Experiments on the Pacinian Corpuscle's Ability to Discriminate Complex Stimuli

Tiffany Louisa Senkow, Nicholas D. Theis, Julia C. Quindlen-Hotek, Victor H. Barocas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recognizing and discriminating vibrotactile stimuli is an essential function of the Pacinian corpuscle. This function has been studied at length in both a computational and an experimental setting, but the two approaches have rarely been compared, especially when the computational model has a high level of structural detail. In this paper, we explored whether the predictions of a multiscale, multiphysical computational model of the Pacinian corpuscle can predict the outcome of a corresponding psychophysical experiment. The discrimination test involved either two simple stimuli with frequency in the 160-500 Hz range, or two complex stimuli formed by combining the waveforms for a 100-Hz stimulus with a second stimulus in the 160-500 Hz range. The subjects' ability to distinguish between the simple stimuli increased as the frequency increased, a result consistent with the model predictions for the same stimuli. The model also predicted correctly that subjects would find the complex stimuli more difficult to distinguish than the simple ones and also that the discriminability of the complex stimuli would show no trend with frequency difference.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number8674607
Pages (from-to)635-644
Number of pages10
JournalIEEE Transactions on Haptics
Volume12
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 IEEE.

Keywords

  • Biomechanics
  • Pacinian corpuscle
  • perception and psychophysics
  • vibrotactile perception.

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