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Effects of receptor density on the tactile perception of roughness: implications for neural mechanisms of texture perception

Abstract Aim of the study: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of receptor density in the glabrous skin of the hand on the perception of the roughness of a textured surface. Materials and methods: This was done by having observers make magnitude estimates of the perceived roughness of raised-dot surfaces at the fingertip, with its high receptor density, and the thenar eminence, with its much lower receptor density. Results: Judgments of perceived roughness averaged over the inter-dot spacings (0.8-5.9 mm) employed in the study did not differ significantly between the two sites, which suggested that roughness perception is not exclusively dependent upon a neural code involving variation in the activity levels of the nerve fibers of spatially distributed receptors, as is the case in spatial discrimination tasks such as spatial-gap detection, grove-orientation discrimination and letter recognition. This hypothesis was further supported by the finding that the elimination of temporal cues by preventing movement of the skin over the raised-dot surface drastically impaired judgments of perceived roughness at the thenar but had little effect on judgments of perceived roughness at the fingertip. Conclusion: These findings suggested that the neural code for perceived roughness at the fingertip is mediated primarily by spatial variation in the activity levels of spatially distributed receptors whereas the neural code for perceived roughness at the thenar is mediated primarily by temporal variation in the activity levels of individual receptors.