Tactile estimation of hedonic and sensory properties during active touch: An electroencephalography study.

Henderson, Jessica, Mari, Tyler, Hewitt, Danielle, Newton-Fenner, Alice, Hopkinson, Andrew, Giesbrecht, Timo, Marshall, Alan ORCID: 0000-0002-8058-5242, Stancak, Andrej ORCID: 0000-0003-3323-3305 and Fallon, Nicholas ORCID: 0000-0003-1451-6983 (2023) Tactile estimation of hedonic and sensory properties during active touch: An electroencephalography study. The European journal of neuroscience, 58 (6). pp. 3412-3431. ISSN 0953-816X, 1460-9568

Access the full-text of this item by clicking on the Open Access link.

Abstract

Perceptual judgements about our physical environment are informed by somatosensory information. In real-world exploration, this often involves dynamic hand movements to contact surfaces, termed active touch. The current study investigated cortical oscillatory changes during active exploration to inform the estimation of surface properties and hedonic preferences of two textured stimuli: smooth silk and rough hessian. A purpose-built touch sensor quantified active touch, and oscillatory brain activity was recorded from 129-channel electroencephalography. By fusing these data streams at a single trial level, oscillatory changes within the brain were examined while controlling for objective touch parameters (i.e., friction). Time-frequency analysis was used to quantify changes in cortical oscillatory activity in alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (16-24 Hz) frequency bands. Results reproduce findings from our lab, whereby active exploration of rough textures increased alpha-band event-related desynchronisation in contralateral sensorimotor areas. Hedonic processing of less preferred textures resulted in an increase in temporoparietal beta-band and frontal alpha-band event-related desynchronisation relative to most preferred textures, suggesting that higher order brain regions are involved in the hedonic processing of texture. Overall, the current study provides novel insight into the neural mechanisms underlying texture perception during active touch and how this process is influenced by cognitive tasks.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	EEG, estimation, hedonic preference, somatosensory, tactile, texture
Divisions:	Faculty of Health & Life Sciences Faculty of Science & Engineering > School of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Computer Science Faculty of Health & Life Sciences > Inst. Population Health
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	07 Aug 2023 09:32
Last Modified:	16 Jun 2026 15:12
DOI:	10.1111/ejn.16101
Open Access URL:	https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/e...
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3172073
Disclaimer:	The University of Liverpool is not responsible for content contained on other websites from links within repository metadata. Please contact us if you notice anything that appears incorrect or inappropriate.