Tactile acuity in the blind: A closer look reveals superiority over the sighted in some but not all cutaneous tasks

Neuropsychologia

Volumn 47, Issue 10, 2009, Pages 2037-2043

  Alary, Flamine ^a   Duquette, Marco ^a   Goldstein, Rachel ^a   Elaine Chapman, C ^b   Voss, Patrice ^a   La Buissonnière Ariza, Valérie ^a   Lepore, Franco ^a  

^a CENTRE DE RECHERCHE EN NEUROPSYCHOLOGIE ET COGNITION   (Canada)

^b UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL   (Canada)

Author keywords

Blind; Human psychophysics; Tactile acuity

Indexed keywords

ADULT; ARTICLE; BLINDNESS; BRAILLE; CLINICAL ARTICLE; CONTROLLED STUDY; DISCRIMINATIVE STIMULUS; FEMALE; FREQUENCY DISCRIMINATION; GRATING; HUMAN; MALE; ORIENTATION; PERCEPTIVE THRESHOLD; TACTILE DISCRIMINATION; TACTILE STIMULATION; TASK PERFORMANCE; VIBRATION SENSE;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; AGE OF ONSET; BLINDNESS; DISCRIMINATION (PSYCHOLOGY); FEMALE; FINGERS; HUMANS; LIGHT; MALE; MIDDLE AGED; NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS; ORIENTATION; PHOTIC STIMULATION; PSYCHOPHYSICS; REACTION TIME; SENSORY THRESHOLDS; SIGNAL DETECTION, PSYCHOLOGICAL; SKIN; TOUCH; VIBRATION; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 67349117864     PISSN: 00283932     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.03.014     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. Alary F., Goldstein R., Duquette M., Chapman C.E., Voss P., and Lepore F. Tactile acuity in the blind: A psychophysical study using a two-dimensional angle discrimination task. Experimental Brain Research 187 (2008) 567-594
2. Amedi A., Raz N., Pianka P., Malach R., and Zohary E. Early visual cortex activation correlates with superior verbal memory performance in the blind. Nature Neuroscience 6 (2003) 758-766
3. Chapman C.E. Active versus passive touch: Factors influencing the transmission of somatosensory signals to primary somatosensory cortex. Canadian Journal of Physiology & Pharmacology 72 (1994) 558-570
4. Cohen L.G., Weeks R.A., Sadato N., Celnik P., Ishii K., and Hallet M. Period of susceptibility for cross-modal plasticity in the blind. Annals of Neurology 45 (1999) 451-460
5. Connor C.E., and Johnson K.O. Neural coding of tactile texture: Comparison of spatial and temporal mechanisms for roughness perception. Journal of Neuroscience 12 (1992) 3414-3426
6. Connor C.E., Hsiao S.S., Phillips J.R., and Johnson K.O. Tactile roughness: Neural codes that account for psychophysical magnitude estimates. Journal of Neuroscience 10 (1990) 3823-3836
7. Craig J.C. Grating orientation as a measure of tactile spatial acuity. Somatosensory & Motor Research 16 (1999) 197-206
8. Darian-Smith I., Davidson I., and Johnson K.O. Peripheral neural representation of spatial dimensions of a textured surface moving across the monkey's finger pad. Journal of Physiology (London) 309 (1980) 135-146
9. Edin B.B. Quantitative analysis of static strain sensitivity in human mechanoreceptors from hairy skin. Journal of Neurophysiology 67 (1992) 1105-1113
10. Facchini S., and Aglioti S.M. Short term light deprivation increases tactile spatial acuity in humans. Neurology 60 (2003) 1998-1999
11. Goldreich G., and Kanics M. Tactile acuity is enhanced in blindness. Journal of Neuroscience 23 (2003) 3439-3445
12. Goldreich G., and Kanics M. Performance of blind and sighted humans on a tactile grating detection task. Perception & Psychophysics 8 (2006) 1363-1371
13. Gougoux F., Lepore F., Lassonde M., Voss P., Zatorre R.J., and Belin P. Pitch discrimination in the early blind. Nature 430 (2004) 309
14. Gougoux F., Zatorre R.J., Lassonde M., Voss P., and Lepore F. A functional neuroimaging study of sound localization: Visual cortex activity predicts performance in early-blind individuals. Public Library of Science Biology 3 (2005) 324-333
15. Grant A.C., Thiagarajah M.C., and Sathian K. Tactile perception in blind Braille readers: A psychophysical study of acuity and hyperacuity using gratings and dot patterns. Perception & Psychophysics 62 (2000) 301-312
16. Heller M.A. Texture perception in sighted and blind observers. Perception & Psychophysics 45 (1989) 49-54
17. Hollins M., and Risner S.R. Evidence for the duplex theory of tactile texture perception. Perception & Psychophysics 62 (2000) 695-705
18. Jiang W., Tremblay F., and Chapman C.E. Neuronal encoding of texture changes in the primary and secondary somatosensory cortical areas of monkeys during passive texture discrimination. Journal of Neurophysiology 77 (1997) 1656-1662
19. Johansson R.S. Sensory input and control of grip. Novartis Foundation Symposium 218 (1998) 45-59
20. Johansson R.S., and Vallbo A.B. Detection of tactile stimuli. Thresholds of afferent units related to psychophysical thresholds in the human hand. Journal of Physiology (London) 297 (1979) 405-422
21. Johnson K.O. The roles and functions of cutaneous mechanoreceptors. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 11 (2001) 455-461
22. Johnson K.O., and Phillips J.R. Tactile spatial resolution. I. Two-point discrimination, gap detection, grating resolution, and letter recognition. Journal of Neurophysiology 46 (1981) 1177-1191
23. Lamb G.D. Tactile discrimination of textured surfaces: Psychophysical performance measurements in humans. Journal of Physiology (London) 338 (1983) 551-565
24. LaMotte R.H., and Mountcastle V.B. Capacities of humans and monkeys to discriminate between vibratory stimuli of different frequency and amplitude: A correlation between neural events and psychophysical measurements. Journal of Neurophysiology 38 (1975) 539-559
25. Lederman S.J. Tactual roughness perception: Spatial and temporal determinants. Canadian Journal of Psychology 37 (1983) 498-511
26. Lessard N., Paré M., Lepore F., and Lassonde M. Early-blind human subjects localize sound sources better than sighted subjects. Nature 395 (1998) 278-280
27. Mahns D.A., Perkins N.M., Sahai V., Robinson L., and Rowe M.J. Vibrotactile frequency discrimination in human hairy skin. Journal of Neurophysiology 95 (2006) 1442-1450
28. Meftah E.-M., Belingard L., and Chapman C.E. Relative effects of the spatial and temporal characteristics of scanned surfaces on human perception of tactile roughness using passive touch. Experimental Brain Research 132 (2000) 351-361
29. Merabet L.B., Hamilton R., Schlaug G., Swisher J.D., Kiriakopoulos E.T., Pitskel N.B., et al. Rapid and reversible recruitment of early visual cortex for touch. PLOS ONE 27 (2008) e3046
30. Morley J.W., Goodwin A.W., and Darian-Smith I. Tactile discrimination of gratings. Experimental Brain Research 49 (1983) 291-299
31. Mountcastle V.B., LaMotte R.H., and Carli G. Detection thresholds for stimuli in humans and monkeys: Comparison with threshold events in mechanoreceptive afferent nerve fibers innervating the monkey hand. Journal of Neurophysiology 35 (1972) 122-136
32. Oldfield R.C. The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologia 9 (1971) 97-113
33. Phillips J.R., and Johnson K.O. Tactile spatial resolution. II. Neural representation of bars, edges, and gratings in monkey primary afferents. Journal of Neurophysiology 46 (1981) 1192-1203
34. Röder B., Rosler F., and Neville H.J. Auditory memory in congenitally blind adults: A behavioural-electrophysiological investigation. Cognitive Brain Research 11 (2001) 289-303
35. Sadato N., Okada T., Honda M., and Yonekura Y. Critical period for cross-modal plasticity in blind humans: A functional MRI study. Neuroimage 16 (2002) 389-400
36. Sathian K., and Zangaladze A. Tactile spatial acuity at the human fingertip and lip: Bilateral symmetry and inter-digit variability. Neurology 46 (1996) 1464-1466
37. Smith A.M., Chapman C.E., Deslandes M., Langlais J.S., and Thibodeau M.P. Role of friction and tangential force variation in the subjective scaling of tactile roughness. Experimental Brain Research 144 (2002) 211-223
38. Talbot W.H., Darian-Smith I., Kornhuber H.H., and Mountcastle V.B. The sense of flutter-vibration: Comparison of the human capacity with response patterns of mechanoreceptive afferents from the monkey hand. Journal of Neurophysiology 31 (1968) 301-334
39. Van Boven R.W., and Johnson K.O. The limit of tactile spatial resolution in humans: Grating orientation discrimination at the lip, tongue, and finger. Neurology 44 (1994) 2361-2366
40. Van Boven R.W., Hamilton R.H., Kauffman T., Keenan J.P., and Pascual-Leone A. Tactile spatial resolution in blind Braille readers. Neurology 54 (2000) 2230-2236
41. Voisin J., Lamarre Y., and Chapman C.E. Haptic discrimination of object shape in humans: Contribution of cutaneous and proprioceptive input. Experimental Brain Research 145 (2002) 251-260
42. Voss P., Lassonde M., Gougoux F., Fortin M., Guillemot J.P., and Lepore F. Early- and late-onset blind individuals show supra-normal auditory abilities in far-space. Current Biology 14 (2004) 1734-1738
43. Yoshioka T., Gibb B., Dorsch A.K., Hsiao S.S., and Johnson K.O. Neural coding mechanisms underlying perceived roughness of finely textured surfaces. Journal of Neuroscience 21 (2001) 6905-6916
44. Zompa I.C., and Chapman C.E. Effects of cross-modal manipulations of attention on the ability of human subjects to discriminate changes in texture. Somatosensory & Motor Research 12 (1995) 87-102