Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：SAGE Publications  

Working memory refers to the cognitive capacity to temporarily store and manipulate information from multiple sensory domains. Recent studies have shown that cognitive training can improve performance in both visual working memory and tactile working memory tasks. However, it is still unclear whether the effects of training can be transferred from one sensory modality to another. The current study assessed whether the training effect of the tactile orientation sequence task could transfer to visual orientation sequence and visuospatial working memory tasks. The results showed that participants’ accuracy in the tactile orientation sequence task was significantly increased after 9 days of training compared with that before training. Remarkably, participants’ accuracy in both the visual orientation sequence task and the visuospatial task was significantly improved after 9 days of training. These results suggest that it is possible to improve visual working memory through a transfer effect from tactile task training without practice in the visual domain, which opens a wide range of applications for tactile orientation sequence tasks.

DOI： 10.1177/21582440211031549

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Other Link： http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/21582440211031549

Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Elsevier BV  

DOI： 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117754

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Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Wiley  

DOI： 10.1002/brb3.2033

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Other Link： https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/brb3.2033

Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

DOI： 10.1109/icma49215.2020.9233631

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Passive tactile perception is the ability to passively and statically perceive stimulus information coming from the skin; for example, the ability to sense spatial information is the strongest in the skin on the hands. This ability is termed tactile spatial acuity, and is measured by the tactile threshold or discrimination threshold. At present, the two-point threshold is extensively used as a measure of tactile spatial acuity, although many studies have indicated that critical deficits exist in two-point discrimination. Therefore, a computer-controlled tactile stimulus system was developed, the tactile semiautomated passive-finger angle stimulator (TSPAS), using the tactile angle discrimination threshold as a new measure for tactile spatial acuity. The TSPAS is a simple, easily operated system that applies raised angle stimuli to a subject's passive fingerpad, while controlling movement speed, distance, and contact duration. The components of the TSPAS are described in detail as well as the procedure to calculate the tactile angle discrimination threshold.

DOI： 10.3791/61218

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Perceptual learning, which is not limited to sensory modalities such as vision and touch, emerges within a training session and between training sessions and is accompanied by the remodeling of neural connections in the cortex. However, limited knowledge exists regarding perceptual learning between training sessions. Although tactile studies have paid attention to between-session learning effects, there have been few studies asking fundamental questions regarding whether the time interval between training sessions affects tactile perceptual learning and generalization across tactile tasks. We investigated the effects of different training time intervals on the consecutive performance of a tactile angle discrimination (AD) task and a tactile orientation discrimination (OD) task training on tactile angle discriminability. The results indicated that in the short-interval training group, AD task performance significantly improved in the early stage of learning and nearly plateaued in the later stage, whereas in the long-interval training group, significant improvement was delayed and then also nearly plateaued in the later stage; additionally, improved OD task performance resulted in improved AD task performance. These findings suggest that training time interval affects the early stage of learning but not the later stage and that generalization occurs between different types of tactile tasks.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Perceptual learning, which constitutes important foundations of complicated cognitive processes, is learning better perception skills. We demonstrate that training time interval can affect the early stage of learning but not the later stage. Moreover, a tactile orientation discrimination training task can also improve tactile angle discrimination performance. These findings may expand the characteristics of between-session learning and help understand the mechanism of the generalization across tactile tasks.

DOI： 10.1152/jn.00161.2019

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Human unmyelinated tactile afferents (CT afferents) in hairy skin are thought to be involved in the transmission of affective aspects of touch. How the perception of affective touch differs across human skin has made substantial progress; however, the majority of previous studies have mainly focused on the relationship between stroking velocities and pleasantness ratings. Here, we investigate how stroking hardness affects the perception of affective touch. Affective tactile stimulation was given with four different hardness of brushes at three different forces, which were presented to either palm or forearm. To quantify the physical factors of the stimuli (brush hardness), ten naïve, healthy participants assessed brush hardness using a seven-point scale. Based on these ten participants, five more participants were added to rate the hedonic value of brush stroking using a visual analogue scale (VAS). We found that pleasantness ratings over the skin resulted in a preference for light, soft stroking, which was rated as more pleasant when compared to heavy, hard stroking. Our results show that the hairy skin of the forearm is more susceptible to stroking hardness than the glabrous of the palm in terms of the perception of pleasantness. These findings of the current study extend the growing literature related to the effect of stroking characteristics on pleasantness ratings.

DOI： 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02141

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Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

DOI： 10.1109/icma.2019.8816393

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Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

DOI： 10.1109/icma.2019.8816525

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

When humans perceive a sensation, their brains integrate inputs from sensory receptors and process them based on their expectations. The mechanisms of this predictive coding in the human somatosensory system are not fully understood. We fill a basic gap in our understanding of the predictive processing of somatosensation by examining the layer-specific activity in sensory input and predictive feedback in the human primary somatosensory cortex (S1). We acquired submillimeter functional magnetic resonance imaging data at 7T (n = 10) during a task of perceived, predictable, and unpredictable touching sequences. We demonstrate that the sensory input from thalamic projects preferentially activates the middle layer, while the superficial and deep layers in S1 are more engaged for cortico-cortical predictive feedback input. These findings are pivotal to understanding the mechanisms of tactile prediction processing in the human somatosensory cortex.

DOI： 10.1126/sciadv.aav9053

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Frontiers Media S. A  

In the somatosensory system, it is well known that the bilateral secondary somatosensory cortex (SII) receives projections from the unilateral primary somatosensory cortex (SI), and the SII, in turn, sends feedback projections to SI. Most neuroimaging studies have clearly shown bilateral SII activation using only unilateral stimulation for both anatomical and functional connectivity across SII subregions. However, no study has unveiled differences in the functional connectivity of the contra-and ipsilateral SII network that relates to frontoparietal areas during tactile object recognition. Therefore, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a delayed match-to-sample (DMS) task to investigate the contributions of bilateral SII during tactile object recognition. In the fMRI experiment, 14 healthy subjects were presented with tactile angle stimuli on their right index finger and asked to encode three sample stimuli during the encoding phase and one test stimulus during the recognition phase. Then, the subjects indicated whether the angle of test stimulus was presented during the encoding phase. The results showed that contralateral (left) SII activity was greater than ipsilateral (right) SII activity during the encoding phase, but there was no difference during the recognition phase. A subsequent psycho-physiological interaction (PPI) analysis revealed distinct connectivity from the contra- and ipsilateral SII to other regions. The left SII functionally connected to the left SI and right primary and premotor cortex, while the right SII functionally connected to the left posterior parietal cortex (PPC). Our findings suggest that in situations involving unilateral tactile object recognition, contra- and ipsilateral SII will induce an asymmetrical functional connectivity to other brain areas, which may occur by the hand contralateral effect of SII.

DOI： 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00662

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Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.  

DOI： 10.2174/2213385205666170724143429

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Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.  

DOI： 10.2174/2213385205666170801151630

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP  

Humans are able to judge the speed of an object's motion by touch. Research has suggested that tactile judgment of speed is influenced by physical properties of the moving object, though the neural mechanisms underlying this process remain poorly understood. In the present study, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to investigate brain networks that may be involved in tactile speed classification and how such networks may be affected by an object's texture. Participants were asked to classify the speed of 2-D raised dot patterns passing under their right middle finger. Activity in the parietal operculum, insula, and inferior and superior frontal gyri was positively related to the motion speed of dot patterns. Activity in the postcentral gyrus and superior parietal lobule was sensitive to dot periodicity. Psycho-physiological interaction (PPI) analysis revealed that dot periodicity modulated functional connectivity between the parietal operculum (related to speed) and postcentral gyrus (related to dot periodicity). These results suggest that texture-sensitive activity in the primary somatosensory cortex and superior parietal lobule influences brain networks associated with tactually-extracted motion speed. Such effects may be related to the influence of surface texture on tactile speed judgment.

DOI： 10.1038/srep40931

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Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.  

DOI： 10.2174/2213385204666160503161135

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Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.  

DOI： 10.2174/2213385203666150804001349

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Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.  

DOI： 10.2174/2213385203666150703164036

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：FRONTIERS MEDIA SA  

The repetition of a stimulus task reduces the neural activity within certain cortical regions responsible for working memory (WM) processing. Although previous evidence has shown that repeated vibrotactile stimuli reduce the activation in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, whether the repeated tactile spatial stimuli triggered the priming effect correlated with the same cortical region remains unclear. Therefore, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a delayed match-to-sample task to investigate the contributions of the priming effect to tactile spatial WM processing. Fourteen healthy volunteers were asked to encode three tactile angle stimuli during the encoding phase and one tactile angle stimulus during the recognition phase. Then, they answered whether the last angle stimulus was presented during the encoding phase. As expected, both the Match and Non-Match tasks activated a similar cerebral network. The critical new finding was decreased brain activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), the right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and bilateral medial frontal gym (mFG) for the match task compared to the Non-Match task. Therefore, we suggest that the tactile priming engaged repetition suppression mechanisms during tactile angle matching, and this process decreased the activation of the fronto-parietal circuit, including IFG, mFG and PPC.

DOI： 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00926

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：SPRINGER-VERLAG ITALIA SRL  

Photophobia and phonophobia are the most prominent symptoms in patients with migraine without aura. Hypersensitivity to visual stimuli can lead to greater hypersensitivity to auditory stimuli, which suggests that the interaction between visual and auditory stimuli may play an important role in the pathogenesis of migraine. However, audiovisual temporal interactions in migraine have not been well studied. Therefore, our aim was to examine auditory and visual interactions in migraine.
In this study, visual, auditory, and audiovisual stimuli with different temporal intervals between the visual and auditory stimuli were randomly presented to the left or right hemispace. During this time, the participants were asked to respond promptly to target stimuli. We used cumulative distribution functions to analyze the response times as a measure of audiovisual integration.
Our results showed that audiovisual integration was significantly elevated in the migraineurs compared with the normal controls (p < 0.05); however, audiovisual suppression was weaker in the migraineurs compared with the normal controls (p < 0.05).
Our findings further objectively support the notion that migraineurs without aura are hypersensitive to external visual and auditory stimuli. Our study offers a new quantitative and objective method to evaluate hypersensitivity to audio-visual stimuli in patients with migraine.

DOI： 10.1186/1129-2377-15-44

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

To investigate the tactile numerosity judgments and position report by simultaneously presenting, we asked human subjects to answer the number and the location of eight vibrations presented to different fingertips on right hand. In numerosity judgments task, we found that the accuracy of participants' responses decreased as the number of stimuli activated was increased. And as the more stimulus presentation, the answer is smaller than the correct answer. In position report task, we found that index finger has higher accuracy of vibrotactile discrimination than the other fingers. Moreover, the sensitivity of distal phalanx part is higher than middle phalanx.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

Working memory are closely related to everyday cognition (such as remembering the conversation and characters). Studies with hearing, vision stimulation have always been carried out, but studies using tactile stimulation are very little. However, tactile working memory is the ability to reproduce the functionality of the somatosensory system. It is very relevant to elucidation of the somatosensory system and intellectual impairment of tactile. Moreover, Visual and Auditory task have possibilities affect education and living environment, such as number, language and so on. On the other hand, tactile stimulation task can research human cognition without the problem. However, tactile stimulation is presented by hand, so study of tactile working memory does not consider pressure information and influence result. Moreover, Active region of brain is changed from time to time in working memory, it must be considered too. Memory in order to investigate the tactile working memory, device for considering the pressure information and to present the tactile stimulation on constant conditions is indispensable. In this Study, we developed and evaluated a device for tactile spatial research in high magnetic field environment. Consideration to advanced research on fMRI environment in the future, we developed device in High magnetic field environment.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：International Information Institute Ltd.  

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is one of the most recently developed forms of neuro imaging, uses MRI to measure the haemodynamic response related to neural activity. In this study, we developed a tactile orientation system using under high magnetic environment. The device is MRI-compatible and can serve to investigate the underlying neural mechanisms of tactile orientation discrimination. The primary components of the tactile orientation presentation system include a computer, five tactile orientation domes, two ultrasonic motors, a motor controller and a reaction key. We evaluated the function and precision of system in a magnetic field. The results showed that the device performance is unaffected by the magnetic field, nor does the device interfere with the magnetic field, making it usable with fMRI. Furthermore, a tactile orientation discrimination fMRI experiment was conducted using the system. Compared to the baseline, the most prominent activation areas evoked by the discrimination tasks were in the bilateral primary and secondary somatosensory area, medial frontal gyrus, posterior parietal cortex and lateral occipital complex. In summary, these results indicated that the brain activation can be reliably detected with the present device. © 2014 International Information Institute.

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Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.  

DOI： 10.2174/2213385211301010011

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：Japan Ergonomics Society  

In this paper, the effects of stimulus eccentricity and luminance on linear vection (LV) were examined with healthy young subjects. Five kinds of blue sine-wave patterns with different spatial frequencies (0.023, 0.037, 0.057, 0.090, 0.141 cycle/deg) were used, and six luminance conditions were modulated respectively of the central and peripheral vision field. The results show that LV is affected by high luminance in central vision field when the spatial frequency is from 0.037 to 0.057 cycle/deg while it does not depend on peripheral vision luminance in any spatial frequencies used in this study.

DOI： 10.5100/jje.49.18

CiNii Article

CiNii Books

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Other Link： https://jlc.jst.go.jp/DN/JALC/10015737372?from=CiNii

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

Human have five senses which are visual, auditory, smell, touch and taste. The sense of touch is occurring when the skin contact with any object and human can percept the shape, temperature, vibration of the object. As well known, the spatial density of receptors located in the human skin differed of different parts such as index finger. Therefore, the sensitivity of each finger were differed from each other. In the present study, we developed a novel automatic vibrotactile patterns delivery device that is capable of perform the tactile cognitive experiment. It can serve to determining the sensitivity of each finger that contributes to tactile spatial discrimination. The primary device consists of eight piezo-electric units, slider, hand support and a controller. The device is controlled by a computer. To evaluate the performance of the device, we conducted a basic function test. The results indicated that the device can record reliable data and control the tactile pattern position precisely. Finally, ten young subjects consented to participate in the position discrimination tasks. The subjects were asked to detect the tactile stimuli and report the location. We found that index finger has higher accuracy of vibrotactile discrimination than the other fingers. Moreover, the sensitivity of distal phalanx part is higher than middle phalanx. © 2013 IEEE.

DOI： 10.1109/ICMA.2013.6617906

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

We have developed a novel automated device for assessing and training cognitive function on tactile senses. The device is capable of investigating tactile pattern discrimination. Tactile patterns are fixed to a conveyor belt and presented continuously to the subject. We used two gears to convert power from a stepping motor into a rotary movement of the belt. 16 different types of angle patterns can be presented in one diagnosis. Development of the device was intended to support our previous study about deficits in tactile discrimination because of aging and cognition disease, suggesting that the device provides a bright future for investigating cognitive function of touch discrimination. Expectantly, the device will be the medium to enable the future application for early diagnosis of dementia.

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Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Springer Science and Business Media LLC  

DOI： 10.1007/s13670-012-0007-4

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Other Link： http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13670-012-0007-4/fulltext.html

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

In the present study, using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we measured the tactile memory related brain activations with tactile orientation discrimination task. For each trial, two of three tactile grating domes with same or different orientations (0, 45 and 90° against the proximal-distal line of right index finger) were presented to the subjects' right index fingertip. Nine health young subjects were asked to discriminate whether the orientations of two tactile stimuli was the same or not. Compared to the resting period, the most prominent activation areas evoked by the orientation discrimination tasks were in the primary and secondary somatosensory areas in the bilateral parietal operculum (SI and SII), posterior parietal cortex (PPC), prefrontal cortex (PFC), supplementary motor area (SMA), lateral occipital complex (LOC), insula and cerebellum. But we found that both of the activation in intensity and size were higher during tactile orientation discrimination process compared to these of encoding process. The result suggested that the tactile orientation discrimination process may raise more brain activations since this process include the high level processing such as recall and decision making. © 2012 IEEE.

DOI： 10.1109/ICCME.2012.6275749

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), one of the most popular forms of neuroimaging, uses MRI to measure the hemodynamic response related to neural activity. In the present study, we developed a tactile speed stimulator for fMRI environment. The device is MRI-compatible and can serve to investigate the underlying neural mechanisms of tactile speed discrimination. The primary components of the tactile speed stimulator system include a computer, two drums with dots, a motor controller and a reaction key. We evaluated the function, precision and performance of the system in a magnetic field. The results showed that the device performance is unaffected by the magnetic field, nor does the device interfere with the magnetic field, making it usable with fMRI. Furthermore, a simple pressing button in fMRI experiment was conducted using the system. Compared to the baseline, the most prominent activation areas evoked by the button press task were in the lobulus parietalis inferior, gyrus postcentralis, gyrus frontalis inferior and gyrus precentralis.In conclusion, these results indicated that the brain activation can be reliably detected with the present device. © 2012 IEEE.

DOI： 10.1109/ICCME.2012.6275623

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IOS PRESS  

The human brain can anatomically combine task-relevant information from different sensory pathways to form a unified perception; this process is called multisensory integration. The aim of the present study was to test whether the multisensory integration abilities of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) differed from those of normal aged controls (NC). A total of 64 subjects were divided into three groups: NC individuals (n = 24), MCI patients (n = 19), and probable AD patients (n = 21). All of the subjects were asked to perform three separate audiovisual integration tasks and were instructed to press the response key associated with the auditory, visual, or audiovisual stimuli in the three tasks. The accuracy and response time (RT) of each task were measured, and the RTs were analyzed using cumulative distribution functions to observe the audiovisual integration. Our results suggest that the mean RT of patients with AD was significantly longer than those of patients with MCI and NC individuals. Interestingly, we found that patients with both MCI and AD exhibited adequate audiovisual integration, and a greater peak (time bin with the highest percentage of benefit) and broader temporal window (time duration of benefit) of multisensory enhancement were observed. However, the onset time and peak benefit of audiovisual integration in MCI and AD patients occurred significantly later than did those of the NC. This finding indicates that the cognitive functional deficits of patients with MCI and AD contribute to the differences in performance enhancements of audiovisual integration compared with NC.

DOI： 10.3233/JAD-2012-111070

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Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Wiley  

DOI： 10.1016/j.jalz.2011.05.774

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Other Link： https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1016/j.jalz.2011.05.774

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is one of the most recently developed forms of neuroimaging, uses MRI to measure the haemodynamic response related to neural activity. In the present study, we developed a tactile orientation stimulator using under high magnetic environment. The device is MRI-compatible and can serve to investigate the underlying neural mechanisms of tactile orientation cognition and discrimination. The primary components of the tactile orientation presentation system include a computer (system control), seven tactile orientation domes, two ultrasonic motors (tactile stimuli presentation), a motor controller and a reaction key. We evaluated the function, precision and performance of the system in a magnetic field. The results showed that the device performance is unaffected by the magnetic field, nor does the device interfere with the magnetic field, making it usable with fMRI. Furthermore, a simple button press fMRI experiment was conducted using the system. Compared to the baseline, the most prominent activation areas evoked by the button press task were in the primary motor area on the right precentral gyrus, bilateral medial frontal gyrus, putamen and cerebellum. In summary, these results indicated that the brain activation can be reliably detected with the present device. © 2011 IEEE.

DOI： 10.1109/ICCME.2011.5876797

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Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

DOI： 10.1109/iccme.2010.5558862

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

Large-field visual stimulation with a rotating stimulus often induces the illusion of self-rotation, which is called circular vection (CV). Although CV has been extensively studied, the dependence of CV on the spatial frequency, luminance and visual-field of the visual stimulus remains unclear. In this paper, we investigated the luminance effects on visual perception of self-rotation. Fourteen young adult male volunteer subjects participated in the study. The device comprised a wide-view screen, a PC and a reaction key. The experimental stimuli were generated onto screen by PC. The sine-wave stimulus was rotated, and changed into five spatial frequencies (0.033, 0.053, 0.084, 0.130, and 0.210 cycle/deg) and six luminance conditions. The subjects reported the perceived CV velocity using the magnitude estimation method, and the latency of CV was defined as the time from the start of the stimulus to the onset of CV. These results may suggested that the CV to be more compelling when the spatial frequency from 0.053cycle/deg to 0.084 cycle/deg and high luminance of visual stimuli in central vision field. And the CV to be faster induced when the spatial frequency approximately 0.084 cycle/deg and high luminance of visual stimuli in central vision field.

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