Dataset Information

Digit-tracking as a new tactile interface for visual perception analysis.

ABSTRACT: Eye-tracking is a valuable tool in cognitive science for measuring how visual processing resources are allocated during scene exploration. However, eye-tracking technology is largely confined to laboratory-based settings, making it difficult to apply to large-scale studies. Here, we introduce a biologically-inspired solution that involves presenting, on a touch-sensitive interface, a Gaussian-blurred image that is locally unblurred by sliding a finger over the display. Thus, the user's finger movements provide a proxy for their eye movements and attention. We validated the method by showing strong correlations between attention maps obtained using finger-tracking vs. conventional optical eye-tracking. Using neural networks trained to predict empirically-derived attention maps, we established that identical high-level features hierarchically drive explorations with either method. Finally, the diagnostic value of digit-tracking was tested in autistic and brain-damaged patients. Rapid yet robust measures afforded by this method open the way to large scale applications in research and clinical settings.

SUBMITTER: Lio G

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6879631 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Digit-tracking as a new tactile interface for visual perception analysis.

Lio Guillaume G Fadda Roberta R Doneddu Giuseppe G Duhamel Jean-René JR Sirigu Angela A

Nature communications 20191126 1

Eye-tracking is a valuable tool in cognitive science for measuring how visual processing resources are allocated during scene exploration. However, eye-tracking technology is largely confined to laboratory-based settings, making it difficult to apply to large-scale studies. Here, we introduce a biologically-inspired solution that involves presenting, on a touch-sensitive interface, a Gaussian-blurred image that is locally unblurred by sliding a finger over the display. Thus, the user's finger mo ...[more]

PMID: 31772154

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Project description:Multisensory information is integrated asymmetrically in speech perception: An audio signal can follow video by 240ms, but can precede video by only 60ms, without disrupting the sense of synchronicity (Munhall et al., 1996). Similarly, air flow can follow either audio (Gick et al., 2010) or video (Bicevskis et al., 2016) by a much larger margin than it can precede either while remaining perceptually synchronous. These asymmetric windows of integration have been attributed to the physical properties of the signals; light travels faster than sound (Munhall et al., 1996), and sound travels faster than air flow (Gick et al., 2010). Perceptual windows of integration narrow during development (Hillock-Dunn and Wallace, 2012), but remain wider among people with autism (Wallace and Stevenson, 2014). Here we show that, even among neurotypical adult perceivers, visual-tactile windows of integration are wider and flatter the higher the participant's Autism Quotient (AQ) (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001), a self-report measure of autistic traits. As "pa" is produced with a tiny burst of aspiration (Derrick et al., 2009), we applied light and inaudible air puffs to participants' necks while they watched silent videos of a person saying "ba" or "pa," with puffs presented both synchronously and at varying degrees of asynchrony relative to the recorded plosive release burst, which itself is time-aligned to visible lip opening. All syllables seen along with cutaneous air puffs were more likely to be perceived as "pa." Syllables were perceived as "pa" most often when the air puff occurred 50-100ms after lip opening, with decaying probability as asynchrony increased. Integration was less dependent on time-alignment the higher the participant's AQ. Perceivers integrate event-relevant tactile information in visual speech perception with greater reliance upon event-related accuracy the more they self-describe as neurotypical, supporting the Happé and Frith (2006) weak coherence account of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Project description:Many neurological diseases impair the motor and somatosensory systems. While several different technologies are used in clinical practice to assess and improve motor functions, somatosensation is evaluated subjectively with qualitative clinical scales. Treatment of somatosensory deficits has received limited attention. To bridge the gap between the assessment and training of motor vs. somatosensory abilities, we designed, developed, and tested a novel, low-cost, two-component (bimanual) mechatronic system targeting tactile somatosensation: the Tactile-STAR-a tactile stimulator and recorder. The stimulator is an actuated pantograph structure driven by two servomotors, with an end-effector covered by a rubber material that can apply two different types of skin stimulation: brush and stretch. The stimulator has a modular design, and can be used to test the tactile perception in different parts of the body such as the hand, arm, leg, big toe, etc. The recorder is a passive pantograph that can measure hand motion using two potentiometers. The recorder can serve multiple purposes: participants can move its handle to match the direction and amplitude of the tactile stimulator, or they can use it as a master manipulator to control the tactile stimulator as a slave. Our ultimate goal is to assess and affect tactile acuity and somatosensory deficits. To demonstrate the feasibility of our novel system, we tested the Tactile-STAR with 16 healthy individuals and with three stroke survivors using the skin-brush stimulation. We verified that the system enables the mapping of tactile perception on the hand in both populations. We also tested the extent to which 30 min of training in healthy individuals led to an improvement of tactile perception. The results provide a first demonstration of the ability of this new system to characterize tactile perception in healthy individuals, as well as a quantification of the magnitude and pattern of tactile impairment in a small cohort of stroke survivors. The finding that short-term training with Tactile-STAR can improve the acuity of tactile perception in healthy individuals suggests that Tactile-STAR may have utility as a therapeutic intervention for somatosensory deficits.

Dataset Information

Digit-tracking as a new tactile interface for visual perception analysis.

Publications

Digit-tracking as a new tactile interface for visual perception analysis.

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