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A new device to present textured stimuli to touch with simultaneous EEG recording

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Abstract

The study of touch has recently grown, due mainly to the extensive use of several types of actuators that stimulate several subsystems of touch. There is a widespread interest in applying these mechanisms to the study of the neurophysiological correlates of tactual perception. In this article, we present a new device (the tactile spinning wheel [TSW]) for delivering textured surfaces to the finger pad. The TSW allows one to control several parameters of the stimulation (angular speed, texture, etc.) and, connected to an EEG recording system, makes it possible to study neural electrophysiological events. The device consists of a rotating platform on which the tactile stimuli are fixed, a system that synchronizes stimuli onset with the EEG system, and an electronic interface that controls the platform. We present the technical details of the TSW, its calibration, and some experimental results we have obtained with this device.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Methodology, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, c/Juan del Rosal, 10, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    José M. Reales Avilés, Francisco Muñoz Muñoz, Manuel Sebastián & Soledad Ballesteros Jiménez

  2. Mannheim University, Mannheim, Germany

    Dieter Kleinböhl

Authors
  1. José M. Reales Avilés
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  2. Francisco Muñoz Muñoz
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  3. Dieter Kleinböhl
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  4. Manuel Sebastián
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  5. Soledad Ballesteros Jiménez
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to José M. Reales Avilés.

Additional information

This work was supported by a grant from the European Community: FP6 NEST-2005-Path-IMP Grant 043432 (SOMAPS).

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Reales Avilés, J.M., Muñoz Muñoz, F., Kleinböhl, D. et al. A new device to present textured stimuli to touch with simultaneous EEG recording. Behavior Research Methods 42, 547–555 (2010). https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.42.2.547

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