Brain discriminative cognition on the perception of touching different fabric using fingers actively.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Using touching movement of fingers, human subjects can discriminate various tactile perception of fabric. As a continuation of the previous study, we aim to further investigate the discriminative mechanisms of the brain cognition to tactile stimulation of different fabric.

METHODS

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to observe the brain responses when the subjects touched linen fabric, as well as revisited the data from the previous silk fabric. And all the subjects were asked to compare the perception of touching the two fabric.

RESULTS

Combining the results of brain responses and perception comparison, we found that activation in the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) and the secondary somatosensory cortex (SII), especially parietal operculum 1 (OP1) in this region, could discriminate this two kinds of fabric distinctly.

CONCLUSION

It is suggested that the functional regions involved in the macrogeometric properties of fabric (such as pliability) is in SI, and the perception of microgeometry of fabric surface (such as roughness and glutinousness) in SII, especially in the sub-region OP1 of the OP. Besides, activation in motor cortex can be a reference for the characterization of the brain cognition on the tactile stimulation of fabric.