A NEURAL INFORMATION-PROCESSING MODEL TO ILLUSTRATE THE DEPENDENCY OFVIBROTACTILE ADAPTATION ON THE STIMULATED SITE OF THE HUMAN HAND

It has been shown that the degree of vibrotactile adaptation is smalle r on the middle finger tip than on the palm, and that it is greater wh en measured with a small contactor than with a large contactor. We pro duced a mathematical model to illustrate these phenomena. An experimen tal results could be simulated with the model on the basis of the foll owing hypotheses: (1) that the accumulated discharge density of mechan oreceptive units depended on the site of stimulation and the size of t he contactor; (2) that the discharge threshold of a mechanoreceptive u nit was higher in post-adaptation than in pre-adaptation; (3) that the slope of stimulus-discharge function was gentler in post-adaptation t han in pre-adaptation.