The roles of lower- and higher-order surface statistics in tactile texture perception
Scinob Kuroki, Masataka Sawayama, Shin’ya Nishida
Abstract
Humans can discriminate subtle spatial patterns differences in the surrounding world through their hands, but the underlying computation remains poorly understood. Here, we 3-D-printed textured surfaces and analyzed the tactile discrimination performance regarding the sensitivity to surface statistics. The results suggest that observers have sensitivity to lower-order statistics whereas not to higher-order statistics. That is, touch differs from vision not only in spatiotemporal resolution but also in (in)sensitivity to high-level surface statistics.
Topics & Concepts
PerceptionTactile perceptionTexture (cosmology)Surface (topology)PsychologyStatisticsCognitive psychologyMathematicsArtificial intelligenceComputer sciencePattern recognition (psychology)NeuroscienceGeometryImage (mathematics)Tactile and Sensory InteractionsVisual perception and processing mechanismsMultisensory perception and integration