Representations Of Object Size Research Articles

A Sensorimotor Numerosity System.

Incoming sensory input provides information for the planning and execution of actions, which yield motor outcomes that are themselves sensory inputs. One dimension where action and perception strongly interact is numerosity perception. Many non-human animals can estimate approximately the number of external elements as well as their own actions, and neurons have been identified that respond to both. Recent psychophysical adaptation studies on humans also provide evidence for neural mechanisms responding to both the number of externally generated events and self-produced actions. Here we advance the idea that these strong connections may arise from dedicated sensorimotor mechanisms in the brain, part of a more generalized system interfacing action with the processing of other quantitative magnitudes such as space and time.

Two representations of object size in early human visual cortex

Two representations of object size in early human visual cortex

Representation of Object Size in the Somatosensory System

In this study we investigate the haptic perception of object size. We report the results from four psychophysical experiments. In the first, we ask subjects to discriminate the size of objects that vary in surface curvature and compliance while changing contact force. We show that objects exhibit size constancy such that perception of object size using haptics does not change with changes in contact force. Based on these results, we hypothesize that size perception depends on the degree of spread between the digits at initial contact with objects. In the second experiment, we test this hypothesis by having subjects continuously contact an object that changes dynamically in size. We show that size perception takes into account the compliance of the object. In the third and fourth experiments we attempt to separate the individual contributions of proprioceptive and cutaneous input. In the third, we test the ability of subjects to perceive object size after altering the sensitivity of cutaneous receptors with adapting vibratory stimuli. The results from this experiment suggest that initial contact is signaled by the cutaneous slowly adapting type 1 afferents (SA1) and/or the rapidly adapting afferents (RA). In the last experiment, we block cutaneous input at the site of contact by anesthetizing the digital nerves and show that proprioceptive information alone provides only a rough estimate of object size. We conclude that the perception of object size depends on inputs from SA1 and possibly RA afferents, combined with inputs from proprioceptive afferents that signal the spread between digits.