Frictional instabilities as an alternative to friction coefficient in fine touch perception.

ABSTRACT: Fine touch perception is often correlated to material properties and friction coefficients, but the inherent variability of human motion has led to low correlations and contradictory findings. Instead, we hypothesized that humans use frictional instabilities to discriminate between objects. Here, we constructed a set of coated surfaces with minimal physical differences, but due to differences in surface chemistry, generated different types of instabilities depending on how quickly a finger is slid and pressed during sliding. In one experiment, we used a mechanical mock finger to quantify and classify differences in instability formation from different coated surfaces. In a second experiment, participants perform a discrimination task using the same coated surfaces. Using the data from thes

SUBMITTER: Derkaloustian M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12908937 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature