The proposed research will investigate the perception of tactile patterns by human subjects. The tactile patterns will be generated on arrays of stimulators that fit against the subject's fingertips. Each array consists of 144 stimulators arranged in a matrix 6 columns by 24 rows. Sets of patterns differing along such dimensions as location, intensity, number of line segments, and so forth will be generated and presented to subjects. Response measures will include identification, discrimination, reaction time, and pattern matching. Three aspects of tactile pattern perception will be examined: masking, interactions among multiple sites of stimulation, and the role of experience. A temporal masking paradigm will be used to see how the perception of tactile patterns is interfered with by tactile maskers and how the nature of the interference changes with changes in the type of masker and in the temporal separation between target and masker. In the studies of interaction among multiple sites, patterns will be presented to as many as three sites on the fingertips and palm. This paradigm will be used to assess the role of attention in tactile information processing. The role of short-term experience will be examined by measuring changes in pattern perception as subjects learn to identify and discriminate tactile patterns. The effect of long-term experience will be evaluated by comparing the performance of groups of subjects who differ in the amount and nature of their experience with complex tactile patterns. One group will be Optacon users, blind individuals who can read by means of a tactile array. The other groups will be blind individuals without Optacon experience and several groups of sighted subjects with varying amounts of tactile experience. The proposed research will be concerned with drawing parallels between tactile processing and visual and auditory processing, with developing measures relevant to understanding the neural coding of tactile patterns, and with improving cutaneous communication systems for the blind, deaf, and deaf-blind.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01NS009783-17
Application #
3394043
Study Section
Hearing Research Study Section (HAR)
Project Start
1977-07-01
Project End
1993-06-30
Budget Start
1987-07-01
Budget End
1988-06-30
Support Year
17
Fiscal Year
1987
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Indiana University Bloomington
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
006046700
City
Bloomington
State
IN
Country
United States
Zip Code
47402
Craig, J C; Xu, B H (1990) Temporal order and tactile patterns. Percept Psychophys 47:22-34
Craig, J C (1989) Interference in localizing tactile stimuli. Percept Psychophys 45:343-55
Horner, D T; Craig, J C (1989) A comparison of discrimination and identification of vibrotactile patterns. Percept Psychophys 45:21-30
Evans, P M (1987) Vibrotactile masking: temporal integration, persistence, and strengths of representations. Percept Psychophys 42:515-25
Craig, J C; Evans, P M (1987) Vibrotactile masking and the persistence of tactual features. Percept Psychophys 42:309-17
Evans, P M; Craig, J C (1986) Temporal integration and vibrotactile backward masking. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 12:160-8
Craig, J C; Green, B G; Rhodes, R P (1985) Ipsilateral versus bilateral placement of a tactile vocoder display. J Acoust Soc Am 77:1266-8
Craig, J C (1985) Attending to two fingers: two hands are better than one. Percept Psychophys 38:496-511
Craig, J C (1985) Tactile pattern perception and its perturbations. J Acoust Soc Am 77:238-46