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Active Movement Reduces the Tactile Discrimination Performance

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Immersive Multimodal Interactive Presence

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Touch and Haptic Systems ((SSTHS))

Abstract

Self-performed arm movements are known to increase the tactile detection threshold (i.e., decrease of tactile sensitivity) which is part of a phenomenon called tactile suppression. Today, the origin and the effects of tactile suppression are not fully understood. Tactile discrimination tasks have been utilized to quantify the changes in tactile sensitivity due to arm movements and to identify the origin of tactile suppression. The results show that active arm movement also increases tactile discrimination thresholds which has never been shown before. Furthermore, it is shown that tactile sensitivity drops at approximately 100 ms before the actual arm movement. We conclude that tactile suppression has two origins: (1) a movement related motor command which is a neuronal signal that can be measured 100 ms before a muscle contraction. This motor command is the origin for the increase of the discrimination threshold prior to the arm movement and (2) task irrelevant sensory input which reduces tactile sensitivity after the onset of the arm movement.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Martin Buss and Angelika Peer for providing us with the ViSHaRD10 and the DeKIFeD4 devices and the help for setting up these systems in our lab. Furthermore, we thank Michael Fritschi and Mario Kleiner with help in the programming of the experimental procedure, Massimiliano Di Luca for help in conceptualizing the experiment and Alexandra Reichenbach and Axel Tielscher for help with the EMG analysis. This work was partly supported by the ImmerSence project within the 6th Framework Programme of the European Union, FET—Presence Initiative, contract number IST-2006-027141, see also www.immersence.info.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Multisensory Perception and Action Group, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany

    Marco P. Vitello

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE

    Michael Fritschi

  3. Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

    Marc O. Ernst

Authors
  1. Marco P. Vitello
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  2. Michael Fritschi
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  3. Marc O. Ernst
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Correspondence to Marco P. Vitello .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Electro- and Information Technology, Technische Universität München, Theresienstrasse 90, Munich, 80333, Germany

    Angelika Peer

  2. Research and Development, BMT Group Ltd, Goodrich House, Waldegrave Road 1, Teddington, TW11 8LZ, United Kingdom

    Christos D. Giachritsis

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Vitello, M.P., Fritschi, M., Ernst, M.O. (2012). Active Movement Reduces the Tactile Discrimination Performance. In: Peer, A., Giachritsis, C. (eds) Immersive Multimodal Interactive Presence. Springer Series on Touch and Haptic Systems. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2754-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2754-3_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-2753-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-2754-3

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