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2021 (English)In: eLIFE, E-ISSN 2050-084X, Vol. 10, article id e64679Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Human tactile afferents provide essential feedback for grasp stability during dexterous object manipulation. Interacting forces between an object and the fingers induce slip events that are thought to provide information about grasp stability. To gain insight into this phenomenon, we made a transparent surface slip against a fixed fingerpad while monitoring skin deformation at the contact. Using microneurography, we simultaneously recorded the activity of single tactile afferents innervating the fingertips. This unique combination allowed us to describe how afferents respond to slip events and to relate their responses to surface deformations taking place inside their receptive fields. We found that all afferents were sensitive to slip events, but FA-I afferents in particular faithfully encoded compressive strain rates resulting from those slips. Given the high density of FA-I afferents in fingerpads, they are well suited to detect incipient slips and to provide essential information for the control of grip force during manipulation.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
eLife Sciences Publications Ltd, 2021
National Category
Physiology and Anatomy
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-183568 (URN)10.7554/ELIFE.64679 (DOI)000658374500001 ()33884951 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-85105747195 (Scopus ID)
2021-06-022021-06-022025-02-10Bibliographically approved