Perceived roughness as a function of body locus. 1990

J C Stevens
John B. Pierce Foundation Laboratory, New Haven, CT 06519.

Twenty subjects made magnitude estimates of the roughness of grooved metallic surfaces applied to 10 body loci. To a first approximation, perceived roughness grew as a power function of groove width, in accordance with earlier studies. The exponents and intercepts (up-down position in log-log coordinates) of the power function turn out to depend strongly on body locus. The straight lines in log-log coordinates tend to diverge with groove width so that differences among body loci are especially pronounced at large groove widths. Sensitivity to roughness was greatest for the lips, fingers, and forearm, and least for the heel, back, and thigh. The rank order of the body loci in terms of roughness sensitivity closely parallels the rank order for punctate pressure sensitivity, as reported by von Frey in 1894, but apparently not for other measures of tactile sensitivity, such as vibration thresholds to various frequencies, two-point thresholds, and error of point localization.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D009949 Orientation Awareness of oneself in relation to time, place and person. Cognitive Orientation,Mental Orientation,Psychological Orientation,Cognitive Orientations,Mental Orientations,Orientation, Cognitive,Orientation, Mental,Orientation, Psychological,Orientations,Orientations, Cognitive,Orientations, Mental,Orientations, Psychological,Psychological Orientations
D011601 Psychophysics The science dealing with the correlation of the physical characteristics of a stimulus, e.g., frequency or intensity, with the response to the stimulus, in order to assess the psychologic factors involved in the relationship. Psychophysic
D004193 Discrimination Learning Learning that is manifested in the ability to respond differentially to various stimuli. Discriminative Learning,Discrimination Learnings,Discriminative Learnings,Learning, Discrimination,Learning, Discriminative
D005260 Female Females
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000293 Adolescent A person 13 to 18 years of age. Adolescence,Youth,Adolescents,Adolescents, Female,Adolescents, Male,Teenagers,Teens,Adolescent, Female,Adolescent, Male,Female Adolescent,Female Adolescents,Male Adolescent,Male Adolescents,Teen,Teenager,Youths
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults
D012684 Sensory Thresholds The minimum amount of stimulus energy necessary to elicit a sensory response. Sensory Threshold,Threshold, Sensory,Thresholds, Sensory
D014110 Touch Sensation of making physical contact with objects, animate or inanimate. Tactile stimuli are detected by MECHANORECEPTORS in the skin and mucous membranes. Tactile Sense,Sense of Touch,Taction,Sense, Tactile,Senses, Tactile,Tactile Senses,Tactions,Touch Sense,Touch Senses

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