The long-range goals of the project remain essentially unchanged from previous years, that is, to extend our understanding of the psychophysical characteristics of responses to vibrotactile stimulation in humans within the context of the possible receptor/neural mechanisms that may underlie those characteristics. Beyond these fundamental and basic goals, and in the realm of application, information processing by cutaneous tactile systems may be utilized when the effectiveness of conventional channels is limited, as in high noise environments, when existing channels are overtaxed, or when existing channels suffer a sensory deficit. There still exist sizable gaps in our knowledge of the fundamental characteristics of the cutaneous sensory systems and that knowledge lags far behind the information that is available for the auditory and visual systems. The basic aim of the proposed research is to close these gaps. The experiments fall into five general problem areas: 1) spatiotemporal aspects of vibrotactile sensation, especially those relating to the development of tactile communication devices; 2) further exploration of parameters relating to the newly developed four-channel model of cutaneous mechanoreception at threshold; 3) suprathreshold levels of stimulation; 4) cross-modality interactions; and; 5) effects of peripheral neuropathies associated with carpal tunnel syndrome, vibration """"""""white finger"""""""", and diabetes. The experiments are targeted on exploring the functional properties of both Pacinian and non-Pacinian receptor systems, within the context of the four-channel model.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DC000098-21
Application #
2124555
Study Section
Sensory Disorders and Language Study Section (CMS)
Project Start
1975-05-01
Project End
1995-08-31
Budget Start
1993-09-01
Budget End
1995-08-31
Support Year
21
Fiscal Year
1993
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Syracuse University
Department
Miscellaneous
Type
Schools of Engineering
DUNS #
City
Syracuse
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
13210
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Checkosky, C M; Bolanowski, S J; Cohen, J C (1996) Assessment of vibrotactile sensitivity in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome. J Occup Environ Med 38:593-601
Makous, J C; Gescheider, G A; Bolanowski, S J (1996) Decay in the effect of vibrotactile masking. J Acoust Soc Am 99:1124-9
Gescheider, G A; Beiles, E J; Checkosky, C M et al. (1994) The effects of aging on information-processing channels in the sense of touch: II. Temporal summation in the P channel. Somatosens Mot Res 11:359-65
Gescheider, G A; Hoffman, K E; Harrison, M A et al. (1994) The effects of masking on vibrotactile temporal summation in the detection of sinusoidal and noise signals. J Acoust Soc Am 95:1006-16
Gescheider, G A; Bolanowski, S J; Hall, K L et al. (1994) The effects of aging on information-processing channels in the sense of touch: I. Absolute sensitivity. Somatosens Mot Res 11:345-57
Gescheider, G A; Valetutti Jr, A A; Padula, M C et al. (1992) Vibrotactile forward masking as a function of age. J Acoust Soc Am 91:1690-6
Gescheider, G A; Hughson, B A (1991) Stimulus context and absolute magnitude estimation: a study of individual differences. Percept Psychophys 50:45-57