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The Physiological Anatomy of a Single Brain Function: Somatosensory Discrimination of Shape

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Abstract

The tactile world consists mainly of surfaces and objects. More than ten thousand times a day we run our fingers across surfaces or pickup, grip or grasp objects often without paying any attention to what we sense. However should we feel something unexpected, a small irregularity on the surface, our attention will turn towards it. The human fingertips are very sensitive and can distinguish level differences of less than 1 μm ( Katz 1923). It is therefore interesting to investigate the tactual perception and see how small differences in the shapes of objects the brain can discriminate. The particular task which is going to be described in this chapter is somatosensory discrimination of the shape of objects.

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© 1991 Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Roland, P.E., Seitz, R.J. (1991). The Physiological Anatomy of a Single Brain Function: Somatosensory Discrimination of Shape. In: Franzén, O., Westman, J. (eds) Information Processing in the Somatosensory System. Wenner-Gren Center International Symposium Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11597-6_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11597-6_20

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-11599-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-11597-6

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