Department of Systems Medicine and Centre of Space Bio-Medicine, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.
Department of Neuromotor Physiology, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
J Neurophysiol. 2021 Oct 1;126(4):1375-1390. doi: 10.1152/jn.00583.2020. Epub 2021 Sep 8.
Besides providing information on elementary properties of objects, like texture, roughness, and softness, the sense of touch is also important in building a representation of object movement and the movement of our hands. Neural and behavioral studies shed light on the mechanisms and limits of our sense of touch in the perception of texture and motion, and of its role in the control of movement of our hands. The interplay between the geometrical and mechanical properties of the touched objects, such as shape and texture, the movement of the hand exploring the object, and the motion felt by touch, will be discussed in this article. Interestingly, the interaction between motion and textures can generate perceptual illusions in touch. For example, the orientation and the spacing of the texture elements on a static surface induces the illusion of surface motion when we move our hand on it or can elicit the perception of a curved trajectory during sliding, straight hand movements. In this work we present a multiperspective view that encompasses both the perceptual and the motor aspects, as well as the response of peripheral and central nerve structures, to analyze and better understand the complex mechanisms underpinning the tactile representation of texture and motion. Such a better understanding of the spatiotemporal features of the tactile stimulus can reveal novel transdisciplinary applications in neuroscience and haptics.
除了提供有关物体基本属性的信息，如质地、粗糙度和柔软度外，触觉在建立对物体运动和手部运动的感知方面也很重要。神经和行为研究揭示了我们在感知质地和运动以及控制手部运动时触觉的机制和限制。本文将讨论触摸物体的几何和机械特性（如形状和质地）、手探索物体的运动以及通过触摸感觉到的运动之间的相互作用。有趣的是，运动和质地之间的相互作用可以在触摸中产生感知错觉。例如，当我们在手放在静止表面上移动时，表面上纹理元素的方向和间隔会产生表面运动的错觉，或者在滑动时会产生弯曲轨迹的感知，而手部则进行直线运动。在这项工作中，我们提出了一种多视角的观点，既包括感知和运动方面，也包括外周和中枢神经结构的反应，以分析和更好地理解触觉质地和运动感知背后的复杂机制。对触觉刺激的时空特征的更好理解可以揭示神经科学和触觉学中新颖的跨学科应用。
