Effect of scanning speed on texture-elicited vibrations

To sense the texture of a surface, we run our fingers across it, which leads to the elicitation of skin vibrations that depend both on the surface and on exploratory parameters, particularly scanning speed. The transduction and processing of these vibrations mediate the ability to discern fine surface features. The objective of the present study is to characterize the effect of changes in scanning speed on texture-elicited vibrations to better understand how the exploratory movements shape the neuronal representation of texture. To this end, we scanned a variety of textures across the fingertip of human participants at a variety of speeds (10–160 mm s −1 ) while measuring the resulting vibrations using a laser Doppler vibrometer. First, we found that the intensity of the vibrations—as indexed by root-mean-square velocity—increases with speed but that the skin displacement remains constant. Second, we found that the frequency composition of the vibrations shifts systematically to higher frequencies with increases in scanning speed. Finally, we show that the speed-dependent shift in frequency composition accounts for the speed-dependent change in intensity.