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Zhou X, Li Y, Tian Y, Masen MA, Li Y, Jin Z. Friction and neuroimaging of active and passive tactile touch. Sci Rep 2023; 13:13077. [PMID: 37567970 PMCID: PMC10421888 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-40326-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2023] [Accepted: 08/08/2023] [Indexed: 08/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Two types of exploratory touch including active sliding and passive sliding are usually encountered in the daily life. The friction behavior of the human finger against the surface of objects is important in tactile perception. The neural mechanisms correlating to tribological behavior are not fully understood. This study investigated the tactile response of active and passive finger friction characterized with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The friction test and fNIRS test were performed simultaneously using the tactile stimulus of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) specimens. Results showed that the sliding modes did not obviously influence the friction property of skin. While three cortex regions were activated in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), showing a higher activation level of passive sliding. This revealed that the tribological performance was not a simple parameter to affect tactile perception, and the difference in cortical hemodynamic activity of active and passive touch was also recognised. The movement-related blood flow changes revealed the role of PFC in integrating tactile sensation although there was no estimation task on roughness perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xue Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People's Republic of China
- Tribology Research Institute, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610031, People's Republic of China
| | - Yiyuan Li
- School of Economics and Management, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, People's Republic of China.
| | - Yu Tian
- State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People's Republic of China
| | - Marc A Masen
- Tribology Group, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
| | - Yuanzhe Li
- State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhongmin Jin
- Tribology Research Institute, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610031, People's Republic of China.
- School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
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Shimane D, Tanaka T, Watanabe K, Tanaka K. Motor engagement enhances incidental memory for task-irrelevant items. Front Psychol 2022; 13:914877. [PMID: 36092058 PMCID: PMC9453871 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.914877] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2022] [Accepted: 07/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Actions shape what we see and memorize. A previous study suggested the interaction between motor and memory systems by showing that memory encoding for task-irrelevant items was enhanced when presented with motor-response cues. However, in the studies on the attentional boost effect, it has been revealed that detection of the target stimulus can lead to memory enhancement without requiring overt action. Thus, the direct link between the action and memory remains unclear. To exclude the effect of the target detection process as a potential confounder, this study assessed the benefit of action for memory by separating items from the response cue in time. In our pre-registered online experiment (N = 142), participants responded to visual Go cues by pressing a key (i.e., motor task) or counting (i.e., motor-neutral cognitive task) while ignoring No-go cues. In each trial, two task-irrelevant images were sequentially presented after the cue disappearance. After encoding the Go/No-go tasks, participants performed a surprise recognition memory test for those images. Importantly, we quantified the impact of overt execution of the action by comparing memories with and without motor response and the impact of covert motor processes (e.g., preparation and planning of action) by comparing memory between the motor and cognitive tasks. The results showed no memory differences between Go and No-go trials in the motor task. This means that the execution itself was not critical for memory enhancement. However, the memory performance in the motor No-go trials was higher than that in the cognitive No-go trials, only for the items presented away from the cues in time. Therefore, engaging the motor task itself could increase incidental memory for the task-irrelevant items compared to a passive viewing situation. We added empirical evidence on the online interaction between action and memory encoding. These memory advantages could be especially brought in action preparation and planning. We believe this fact may expand our present understanding of everyday memory, such as active learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daisuke Shimane
- Research Center for Brain Communication, Kochi University of Technology, Kochi, Japan
| | - Takumi Tanaka
- Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology and Faculty of Letters, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- *Correspondence: Takumi Tanaka
| | - Katsumi Watanabe
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Kanji Tanaka
- Faculty of Arts and Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
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Abstract
Working memory bridges perception to action over extended delays, enabling flexible goal-directed behaviour. To date, studies of visual working memory – concerned with detailed visual representations such as shape and colour – have considered visual memory predominantly in the context of visual task demands, such as visual identification and search. Another key purpose of visual working memory is to directly inform and guide upcoming actions. Taking this as a starting point, I review emerging evidence for the pervasive bi-directional links between visual working memory and (planned) action, and discuss these links from the perspective of their common goal of enabling flexible and precise behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Freek van Ede
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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Somatosensory attending to the lower back is associated with response speed of movements signaling back pain. Brain Res 2019; 1723:146383. [PMID: 31419425 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2019.146383] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2018] [Revised: 06/14/2019] [Accepted: 08/12/2019] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
The present study investigated if preparing a movement that is expected to evoke pain results in hesitation to initiate the movement (i.e., avoidance) and, especially, if the allocation of attention to the threatened body part mediates such effect. To this end, healthy volunteers (N = 33) performed a postural perturbation task recruiting lower back muscles. In 'threat trials', the movement was sometimes followed by an experimental pain stimulus on the back, whereas in 'no-threat trials', a non-painful control stimulus was applied. Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to assess attending to the lower back. Specifically, somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) to task-irrelevant tactile stimuli administered to the lower back were recorded during movement preparation. Reaction times (RTs) were recorded to assess movement initiation. The results revealed faster responses and enhanced somatosensory attending to the lower back on threat trials than on no-threat trials. Importantly, the amplitude of the N95 SEP component predicted RTs and was found to partially mediate the effect of pain anticipation on movement initiation. These findings suggest that somatosensory attending might be a potential mechanism by which pain anticipation can modulate motor execution.
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Abstract
Tactile signals on a hand that serves as movement goal are enhanced during movement planning and execution. Here, we examined how spatially specific tactile enhancement is when humans reach to their own static hand. Participants discriminated two brief and simultaneously presented tactile stimuli: a comparison stimulus on the left thumb or little finger from a reference stimulus on the sternum. Tactile stimuli were presented either during right-hand reaching towards the left thumb or little finger or while holding both hands still (baseline). Consistent with our previous findings, stimuli on the left hand were perceived stronger during movement than baseline. However, tactile enhancement was not stronger when the stimuli were presented on the digit that served as reach target, thus the perception across the whole hand was uniformly enhanced. In experiment 2, we also presented stimuli on the upper arm in half of the trials to reduce the expectation of the stimulus location. Tactile stimuli on the target hand, but not on the upper arm, were generally enhanced, supporting the idea of a spatial gradient of tactile enhancement. Overall, our findings argue for low spatial specificity of tactile enhancement at movement-relevant body parts, here the target hand.
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van Ede F, Winner T, Maris E. Touch automatically upregulates motor readiness in humans. J Neurophysiol 2015; 114:3121-30. [PMID: 26400256 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00504.2015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2015] [Accepted: 09/22/2015] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Goal-directed movements require effective integration of tactile input with ongoing movement. Here we investigated the functional consequences of such integration in healthy humans by probing the influence of spatially congruent and incongruent tactile stimuli on performance in a speeded button-press task. In addition, using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we evaluated whether the modulation of somato-motor beta (13-30 Hz) oscillations following tactile input-which has been shown to propagate to motor areas-could underlie this influence. We demonstrate that congruent tactile stimuli, despite being irrelevant to the motor task, lead to both faster and more accurate responses. We further show that this automatic upregulation of lateralized motor readiness 1) is specific to tactile input, 2) is independent of the spatial separation of the hands in peripersonal space, and 3) lasts (and remains facilitatory) for up to a second after the tactile input. This pattern of behavioral results is in line with recent physiological investigations showing that somatosensory and motor areas directly influence each other's processing capacity through joint changes in brain state. At the same time, however, the tactile-induced modulation of beta oscillations (one particular index of such a somato-motor state change) could not account for the observed movement facilitation, because it had a different time course.
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Affiliation(s)
- Freek van Ede
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; and Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Tobias Winner
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; and
| | - Eric Maris
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; and
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Abstract
Alfred L. Yarbus was among the first to demonstrate that eye movements actively serve our perceptual and cognitive goals, a crucial recognition that is at the heart of today's research on active vision. He realized that not the changes in fixation stick in memory but the changes in shifts of attention. Indeed, oculomotor control is tightly coupled to functions as fundamental as attention and memory. This tight relationship offers an intriguing perspective on transsaccadic perceptual continuity, which we experience despite the fact that saccades cause rapid shifts of the image across the retina. Here, I elaborate this perspective based on a series of psychophysical findings. First, saccade preparation shapes the visual system's priorities; it enhances visual performance and perceived stimulus intensity at the targets of the eye movement. Second, before saccades, the deployment of visual attention is updated, predictively facilitating perception at those retinal locations that will be relevant once the eyes land. Third, saccadic eye movements strongly affect the contents of visual memory, highlighting their crucial role for which parts of a scene we remember or forget. Together, these results provide insights on how attentional processes enable the visual system to cope with the retinal consequences of saccades.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Rolfs
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, GermanyBernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany
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