Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

The import of skin tissue dynamics in tactile sensing

Rongala, Udaya B. LU ; Seyfarth, Andre ; Hayward, Vincent and Jörntell, Henrik LU (2024) In Cell Reports Physical Science 5(5).
Abstract

The mammalian skin is a densely innervated soft tissue where neural mechanoreceptors embedded in the skin report to the brain the mechanical events arising at its surface. Up to now, models of the transformations of these events into neural signals relied on quasi-static or viscoelastic mechanical models of the skin tissue. Here we developed a model, which, in addition to elasticity and viscosity, accounted for mass to accurately reproduce the propagation of mechanical waves observed in vivo. Skin dynamics converted sensory inputs into rapidly evolving spatiotemporal patterns that magnified the information made available to a population of mechanoreceptors. Accounting for dynamics in the skin tissue thus greatly enhanced the... (More)

The mammalian skin is a densely innervated soft tissue where neural mechanoreceptors embedded in the skin report to the brain the mechanical events arising at its surface. Up to now, models of the transformations of these events into neural signals relied on quasi-static or viscoelastic mechanical models of the skin tissue. Here we developed a model, which, in addition to elasticity and viscosity, accounted for mass to accurately reproduce the propagation of mechanical waves observed in vivo. Skin dynamics converted sensory inputs into rapidly evolving spatiotemporal patterns that magnified the information made available to a population of mechanoreceptors. Accounting for dynamics in the skin tissue thus greatly enhanced the separability of tactile inputs and was efficient for a large range of mechanical parameter values. This advantage vanished when these parameters were set to approximate the quasi-static or viscoelastic cases.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
haptics, mechanoreceptor, neurophysiology, principal component analysis, sensory information, skin tissue dynamics, spiking, tactile, tactile coding
in
Cell Reports Physical Science
volume
5
issue
5
article number
101943
publisher
Cell Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85193003399
ISSN
2666-3864
DOI
10.1016/j.xcrp.2024.101943
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7283a1d6-8c5c-47f2-893f-9d46427ad6dd
date added to LUP
2024-05-27 15:07:23
date last changed
2024-05-27 15:08:38
@article{7283a1d6-8c5c-47f2-893f-9d46427ad6dd,
  abstract     = {{<p>The mammalian skin is a densely innervated soft tissue where neural mechanoreceptors embedded in the skin report to the brain the mechanical events arising at its surface. Up to now, models of the transformations of these events into neural signals relied on quasi-static or viscoelastic mechanical models of the skin tissue. Here we developed a model, which, in addition to elasticity and viscosity, accounted for mass to accurately reproduce the propagation of mechanical waves observed in vivo. Skin dynamics converted sensory inputs into rapidly evolving spatiotemporal patterns that magnified the information made available to a population of mechanoreceptors. Accounting for dynamics in the skin tissue thus greatly enhanced the separability of tactile inputs and was efficient for a large range of mechanical parameter values. This advantage vanished when these parameters were set to approximate the quasi-static or viscoelastic cases.</p>}},
  author       = {{Rongala, Udaya B. and Seyfarth, Andre and Hayward, Vincent and Jörntell, Henrik}},
  issn         = {{2666-3864}},
  keywords     = {{haptics; mechanoreceptor; neurophysiology; principal component analysis; sensory information; skin tissue dynamics; spiking; tactile; tactile coding}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  publisher    = {{Cell Press}},
  series       = {{Cell Reports Physical Science}},
  title        = {{The import of skin tissue dynamics in tactile sensing}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2024.101943}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.xcrp.2024.101943}},
  volume       = {{5}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}