Simulation of motion on the skin. IV. Responses of Pacinian corpuscle afferents innervating the primate hand to stripe patterns on the OPTACON.

1. To measure spatial acuity of Pacinian corpuscle (PC) afferents in the median and ulnar nerves of macaque monkeys, we displayed horizontal bar patterns spaced 1-13 mm apart on a computer-controlled OPTACON stimulator contacting the hand. Two-point resolution was measured by simultaneously pulsing pairs of rows at rates of 100, 50, and 25 Hz; each pair was shifted in tandem across the skin in 1.2-mm steps to simulate tangential motion at speeds of 30-120 mm/s. Single-fiber responses are reported from eight physiologically identified PC afferents innervating the fingers and palm in anesthetized monkeys. 2. Pacinian afferents differ in their sensitivity to stripe patterns moved across the hand. Bursting PCs fire bursts of two or three spikes/pulse when one of the bars is close to the field center and one spike/pulse when adjacent bars straddle the center. These bursts result in double-peaked response profiles at stripe spacings greater than or equal to 2.4 mm. The passage of individual stripes over the field center is therefore represented by bursts of impulses superimposed on a continuous spike train. Unfortunately, many of these fibers also demonstrate fluctuations in firing that appear unrelated to the stripe pattern and therefore obscure its clear representation. 3. The remainder of the PC population displays uniform-sensitivity responses that resemble those previously reported for rapidly adapting (RA) afferents. They fire one spike/pulse as long as at least one of the bars is contained within the field. They merge individual stripes spaced less than one field diameter apart and show a pause in firing at wider spacing. Spatial resolution of gaps in the stripe pattern is therefore determined by receptive-field diameters, which extend up to 9.6 mm when tested with the OPTACON. 4. PCs display poorer spatial resolution than RAs, because of their larger receptive fields and less regular firing patterns. Only two of eight PCs tested demonstrated a pause in activity representing the gap between bars spaced 4.8 mm apart, whereas 11 of 14 RAs ceased firing briefly between stripes. Resolution of the individual stripes by all of the PCs tested was observed only at bar spacings of 1 cm (8 rows) or more. Spatial resolution of stripes is further impeded by the tendency of PC afferents to summate inputs from stripes spaced less than 2.4 mm apart; this results in response profiles with a single, large-amplitude broad peak.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)