Vibrotactile difference thresholds: Effects of vibration frequency, vibration magnitude, contact area, and body location

Abstract

It has not been established whether the smallest perceptible change in the intensity of vibrotactile stimuli depends on the somatosensory channel mediating the sensation. This study investigated intensity difference thresholds for vibration using contact conditions (different frequencies, magnitudes, contact areas, body locations) selected so that perception would be mediated by more than one psychophysical channel. It was hypothesized that difference thresholds mediated by the non-Pacinian I (NPI) channel and the Pacinian (P) channel would differ. Using two different contactors (1-mm diameter contactor with 1-mm gap to a fixed surround; 10-mm diameter contactor with 2-mm gap to the surround) vibration was applied to the thenar eminence and the volar forearm at two frequencies (10 and 125 Hz). The up-down-transformed-response method with a three-down-one-up rule provided absolute thresholds and also difference thresholds at various levels above the absolute thresholds of 12 subjects (i.e., sensation levels, SLs) selected to activate preferentially either single channels or multiple channels. Median difference thresholds varied from 0.20 (thenar eminence with 125-Hz vibration at 10 dB SL) to 0.58 (thenar eminence with 10-Hz vibration at 20 dB SL). Median difference thresholds tended to be lower for the P channel than the NPI channel. The NPII channel may have reduced difference thresholds with the smaller contactor at 125 Hz. It is concluded that there are large and systematic variations in difference thresholds associated with the frequency, the magnitude, the area of contact, and the location of contact with vibrotactile stimuli that cannot be explained without increased understanding of the perception of supra-threshold vibrotactile stimuli.