title: An electrophysiological study of haptic roughness: effects of levels of texture and stimulus uncertainty in the P300.
abstract: This study investigated the neural mechanisms implicated in tactile perception using a discrimination task. We also investigated the influence of the type of presentation on the subject's uncertainty. The stimuli varied across four levels of roughness and were presented using a pure/mixed block design. We used an oddball paradigm with three target stimuli varying in the level of roughness, and a smooth surface as the non-target. Stimuli were presented using a specific-purpose device. We analyzed the modulation of the P300 amplitude elicited by targets and non-targets in both presentation conditions. The results showed that the P300 waveform was modulated by roughness, as well as by the order of stimuli presentation. The P300 amplitude was more sensitive to roughness when stimuli were presented in mixed blocks (higher uncertainty). The results are discussed in the context of the attention resources allocation theory applied to tactile modality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Psychology II, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: frmunoz@psi.ucm.es.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Muñoz
authors.affiliation: Department of Methodology, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: jmreales@psi.uned.es.
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Reales
authors.affiliation: Department of Construction and Manufacturing Engineering, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: msebastian@ind.uned.es.
authors.forename: Miguel Ángel
authors.initials: MÁ
authors.lastname: Sebastián
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Psychology II, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: mballesteros@psi.uned.es.
authors.forename: Soledad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ballesteros
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D018913:Event-Related Potentials, P300; D006801:Humans; D010812:Physical Stimulation; D011601:Psychophysics; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055698:Touch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D035501:Uncertainty
keywords: Dynamic passive touch; Event-related evoked potentials (ERPs); P300; Roughness perception; Tactile attention