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Hollins, M., & Bensmaïa, S. J. (2007). The coding of roughness. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, 184-195.
This short review provides a highly readable introduction to the subject of texture perception, emphasizing our lab’s work demonstrating the importance of skin vibration as a source of information about fine surfaces. Dr. Bensmaïa is now Associate Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins University’s Mind/Brain Institute.
Hollins, M., Lorenz, F., & Harper, D. (2006). Somatosensory coding of roughness: The effect of texture adaptation in direct and indirect touch. Journal of Neuroscience, 26,5582-5588.
When you rub your finger across a fine surface for a minute or more, its roughness seems to decrease. However, this doesn’t happen for coarse surfaces. These results are interpreted in the light of our two-factor (“duplex”) theory of texture perception.
Bensmaïa, S. J., & Hollins, M. (2005). Pacinian representations of fine surface texture. Perception & Psychophysics, 67, 842-854.
This article is the definitive description of our measurements of vibration that occurs in the skin when we examine a textured surface. Different surfaces have distinctive vibration “signatures” that help us identify them.
Hollins, M., Seeger, A., Pelli, G., and Taylor, R. (2004). Haptic perception of virtual surfaces: Scaling subjective qualities and interstimulus differences. Perception, 33, 1001-1019.
In this study, the Somatosensory Research Lab collaborated with Prof. Russell Taylor of the Computer Science Department and his student, Adam Seeger, to investigate the perception of virtual surfaces. Forces, exerted by motors on a stylus held by the subjects, created the illusory surfaces.
Roy, E. A., Hollins, M., and Maixner, W. (2003). Reduction of TMD pain by high-frequency vibration: a spatial and temporal analysis. Pain, 101, 267-274.
Individuals with chronic facial pain were the participants in this study. Elizabeth Roy (now Elizabeth Roy Felix) and her colleagues found that the frequency of a vibration is an important determiner of whether it will alleviate pain. Dr. Felix is now Research Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Miami.
Hollins, M., Roy, E. A., and Crane, S. A. (2003). Vibratory antinociception: Effects of vibration amplitude and frequency. The Journal of Pain, 4, 381-391.
A low-intensity laser was used to elicit “pure” pain sensations at threshold. We found that vibration interfered with the detectability of the laser, thus establishing that pain gating depends on changes in sensitivity, not just response criterion.
Hollins, M., Bensmaïa, S. J., and Washburn, S. (2001). Vibrotactile adaptation impairs discrimination of fine, but not coarse, textures. Somatosensory & Motor Research, 18, 253-262.
For this study, the Somatosensory Research Lab teamed up with Professor Sean Washburn in the Physics Department. Using a set of custom-made surfaces that spanned the range from very fine to very coarse, we showed that accurate perception of fine textures depends on our ability to detect vibration.
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