Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Occupation-related long-term sensory training enhances roughness discrimination but not tactile acuity

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Experimental Brain Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Extensive use of sensorimotor properties has been shown to lead to use-dependent plasticity in the human motor cortex as well as sensory areas. The sensory consequences of these cortical changes, however, remain widely unclear. We were interested whether job-related long-term haptic training is measurable in terms of changes in haptic perception (active touch exploration) in manual physiotherapists (PT). To that end, the haptic thresholds of PT (students and employed) and registered osteopathic manual therapists (OMT; PT with postgraduate specialization) were measured and compared to age- and sex-matched control groups. Additionally, tactile acuity (passive static touch) was assessed using grating domes. PT and OMT had superior mean haptic thresholds compared to the control group, suggesting an increase in sensitivity through use. An age-related decline in haptic perception capacity occurred only in the control group, suggesting that the job-related training of the manual therapist groups may have slowed their age-related decline. Contrary to our expectation, we found significantly poorer mean haptic threshold results in the PT student group than for the controls. No significant differences or changes in tactile acuity were found for any of the groups (students and professional). The present results demonstrate use-dependent plasticity in manual therapists. Furthermore, the results underline the known effect of a superior discrimination ability of haptic as opposed to tactile perception.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Baillie S, Crossan A, Reid S, Brewster S (2003) Preliminary development and evaluation of a bovine rectal palpation simulator for training veterinary students. Cattle Pract 11:101–106

    Google Scholar 

  • Bensmaia SJ, Hollins M (2003) The vibrations of texture. Somatosens Mot Res 20:33–43

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bensmaia SJ, Hollins M (2005) Pacinian representations of fine surface texture. Percept Psychophys 67:842–854

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Boll TJ, Richards H, Berent S (1978) Tactile-perceptual functioning and academic performance in brain-impaired and unimpaired children. Percept Mot Skills 47:491–495

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dinse HR, Wilimzig C, Kalisch T (2008) Learning effects in haptic perception. In: Grunwald M (ed) Human haptic perception: basics and applications. Birkhäuser, Basel, pp 165–182

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Drenckhahn D, Zenker WEd (1994) Benninghoff Makroskopische Anatomie, Embryologie und Histologie des Menschen, vol 2. Urban & Schwarzenberg, München

    Google Scholar 

  • Elbert T, Pantev C, Wienbruch C, Rockstroh B, Taub E (1995) Increased cortical representation of the fingers of the left hand in string players. Science 270:305–307

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Escalona S (1953) Emotional development in the first year of life. In: Senn MJE (ed) Problems of infancy and childhood. Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Flor H (2002) Phantom-limb pain: characteristics, causes, and treatment. Lancet Neurol 1:182–189

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Flor H, Diers M (2009) Sensorimotor training and cortical reorganization. Neurorehabilitation 25:19–27

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Flor H, Denke C, Schaefer M, Grusser S (2001) Effect of sensory discrimination training on cortical reorganisation and phantom limb pain. Lancet 357:1763–1764

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Godde B, Stauffenberg B, Spengler F, Dinse HR (2000) Tactile coactivation-induced changes in spatial discrimination performance. J Neurosci 20:1597–1604

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gosselin F, Bouchigny S, Megard C, Taha F, Delcampe P, d’Hauthuille C (2013) Haptic systems for training sensorimotor skills: a use case in surgery. Robot Auton Syst 61:380–389

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grunwald M (ed) (2008) Human haptic perception. Birkhäuser, Basel

    Google Scholar 

  • Grunwald M, Ettrich C, Assmann B, Dahne A, Krause W, Busse F, Gertz HJ (2001) Deficits in haptic perception and right parietal theta power changes in patients with anorexia nervosa before and after weight gain. Int J Eat Disord 29:417–428

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Halata Z, Baumann KI (2008) Anatomy of receptors. In: Grunwald M (ed) Human haptic perception. Birkhäuser, Basel, pp 85–92

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffken O, Veit M, Knossalla F, Lissek S, Bliem B, Ragert P, Dinse HR, Tegenthoff M (2007) Sustained increase of somatosensory cortex excitability by tactile coactivation studied by paired median nerve stimulation in humans, correlates with perceptual gain. J Physiol-Lond 584:463–471

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hsiao S, Yau J (2008) Neural basis of haptic perception. In: Grunwald M (ed) Human haptic perception. Birkhäuser, Basel, pp 103–112

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt CC (1961) On the nature of vibration receptors in the hind limb of the cat. J Physiol 155:175–186

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson KO, Hsiao SS (1992) Neural mechanisms of tactual form and texture-perception. Annu Rev Neurosci 15:227–250

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson KO, Phillips JR (1981) Tactile spatial-resolution. 1. 2-point discrimination, gap detection, grating resolution, and letter recognition. J Neurophysiol 46:1177–1191

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kalisch T, Tegenthoff M, Dinse HR (2008) Improvement of sensorimotor functions in old age by passive sensory stimulation. Clin Interv Aging 3:673–690

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kerr CE, Shaw JR, Wasserman RH, Chen VW, Kanojia A, Bayer T, Kelley JM (2008) Tactile acuity in experienced tai chi practitioners: evidence for use dependent plasticity as an effect of sensory-attentional training. Exp Brain Res 188:317–322

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kleibel N, Ragert P, Kalisch T, Böhmer G, Tegenthoff M, Dinse HR (2003) Tactile discrimination learning in seniors evidence for reversibility of age-related changes. Soc Neurosci Abs 29(172):14

    Google Scholar 

  • Li SC, Jordanova M, Lindenberger U (1998) From good senses to good sense: a link between tactile information processing and intelligence. Intelligence 26:99–122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Libouton X, Barbier O, Plaghki L, Thonnard JL (2010) Tactile roughness discrimination threshold is unrelated to tactile spatial acuity. Behav Brain Res 208:473–478

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Libouton X, Barbier O, Berger Y, Plaghki L, Thonnard JL (2012) Tactile roughness discrimination of the finger pad relies primarily on vibration sensitive afferents not necessarily located in the hand. Behav Brain Res 229:273–279

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Louw S, Kappers AML, Koenderink JJ (2000) Haptic detection thresholds of Gaussian profiles over the whole range of spatial scales. Exp Brain Res 132:369–374

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Louw S, Kappers AML, Koenderink JJ (2002) Haptic discrimination of stimuli varying in amplitude and width. Exp Brain Res 146:32–37

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Manning H, Tremblay F (2006) Age differences in tactile pattern recognition at the fingertip. Somatosens Mot Res 23:147–155

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Montague A (1978) Touching—the human significance of the skin. Harper & Row, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Moseley GL, Wiech K (2009) The effect of tactile discrimination training is enhanced when patients watch the reflected image of their unaffected limb during training. Pain 144:314–319

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mountcastle VB (2005) The sensory hand: neural mechanisms of somatic sensation. Harvard College, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Mueller S, Habermann S, Dudda J, Grunwald M (2013) Observation of own exploration movements impairs haptic spatial perception. Exp Brain Res 231(4):415–423

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Norrsell U, Eliasson B, Frizell M, Wallin BG, Wesslau C, Olausson H (2001) Tactile directional sensibility and diabetic neuropathy. Muscle Nerv 24:1496–1502

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Patton JL, Kovic M, Mussa-Ivaldi FA (2006) Custom-designed haptic training for restoring reaching ability to individuals with poststroke hemiparesis. J Rehabil Res Dev 43:643–655

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peters RM, Hackeman E, Goldreich D (2009) Diminutive digits discern delicate details: fingertip size and the sex difference in tactile spatial acuity. J Neurosci 29:15756–15761

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ragert P, Schmidt A, Altenmuller E, Dinse HR (2004) Superior tactile performance and learning in professional pianists: evidence for meta-plasticity in musicians. Eur J Neurosci 19:473–478

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ramachandran VS, Rogersramachandran D, Stewart M (1992) Perceptual correlates of massive cortical reorganization. Science 258:1159–1160

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sathian K, Zangaladze A (1997) Tactile learning is task specific but transfers between fingers. Percept Psychophys 59:119–128

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Singapogu RB, DuBose S, Long LO, Smith DE, Burg TC, Pagano CC, Burg KJL (2013) Salient haptic skills trainer: initial validation of a novel simulator for training force-based laparoscopic surgical skills. Surg Endosc Other Interv Tech 27:1653–1661

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stankov L, Seizova-Cajiç T, Roberts RD (2001) Tactile and kinesthetic perceptual processes within the taxonomy of human cognitive abilities. Intelligence 29:1–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stevens JC, Alvarez-Reeves M, Dipietro L, Mack GW, Green BG (2003) Decline of tactile acuity in aging: a study of body site, blood flow, and lifetime habits of smoking and physical activity. Somatosens Mot Res 20:271–279

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Strenze T (2007) Intelligence and socioeconomic success: a meta-analytic review of longitudinal research. Intelligence 35:401–426

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanboven RW, Johnson KO (1994) The limit of tactile spatial-resolution in humans—grating orientation discrimination at the lip, tongue, and finger. Neurology 44:2361–2366

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vrethem M, Boivie J, Arnqvist H, Holmgren H, Lindstrom T (2002) Painful polyneuropathy in patients with and without diabetes: clinical, neurophysiologic, and quantitative sensory characteristics. Clin J Pain 18:122–127

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wong M, Peters RM, Goldreich D (2013) A physical constraint on perceptual learning: tactile spatial acuity improves with training to a limit set by finger size. J Neurosci 33:9345–9352

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yang TT, Gallen CC, Ramachandran VS, Cobb S, Schwartz BJ, Bloom FE (1994) Noninvasive detection of cerebral plasticity in adult human somatosensory cortex. NeuroReport 5:701–704

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Mrs. cand. psych. Laura Harms, Mrs. Kirsten Heitmueller, and Mr. cand. psych. Matthias Moeder for their support in the acquisition of the data. We would also like to thank the Medizinischen Berufsfachschule, Leipzig, (especially Mrs. Zenker), and the University Clinic of Leipzig AöR for their support during the realization of the study. This research project was supported in part by the Deutsche Forschungsinitiative Eßstörungen (DFE e.V.) and the Haptik-Forschungszentrum. Neither had influence on the preparation of the article nor the conduct of the research.

Conflict of interest

None.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Haptic Research Laboratory, Medical Faculty, Paul-Flechsig-Institute for Brain Research, University of Leipzig, Johannisallee 34, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    S. Mueller, F. Krause & M. Grunwald

  2. Department of Health and Social Services, Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University, Wilhelm Street 10, 89518, Heidenheim, Germany

    C. Winkelmann

Authors
  1. S. Mueller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. C. Winkelmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. F. Krause
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. M. Grunwald
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Grunwald.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mueller, S., Winkelmann, C., Krause, F. et al. Occupation-related long-term sensory training enhances roughness discrimination but not tactile acuity. Exp Brain Res 232, 1905–1914 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-3882-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-3882-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation