Brevity of haptic force perturbations induces heightened adaptive sensitivity.

ABSTRACT: We have exposed human participants to both full-movement and pulsatile viscous force perturbations to study the effect of force duration on the incremental transformation of sensation into adaptation. Traditional views of movement biomechanics could suggest that pulsatile forces would largely be attenuated as stiffness and viscosity act as a natural low-pass filter. Sensory transduction, however, tends to react to changes in stimuli and therefore could underlie heightened sensitivity to briefer, pulsatile forces. Here, participants adapted within perturbation duration conditions in a manner proportionate to sensed force and positional errors. Across perturbation conditions, we found participants had greater adaptive sensitivity when experiencing pulsatile forces rather than full-movement f

SUBMITTER: Wanda PA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3646637 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature