Investigation of fabric tactile perception using the event-related potential method

Abstract

The mechanism of the neuro-electrophysiological response of the human brain to skin tactile stimulation has always been an important research topic in the field of comfort perception of textile materials. In order to explore the characteristic neural potential components induced by various fabric tactile stimulation and their influence rules, event-related potential technology with ultra-high time resolution was introduced to monitor the somatosensory brain region under tactile stimulation of fabrics with different tactile properties, and the signal changes of related potentials were extracted and analyzed. The results showed that the amplitudes of N100 increased with the stiffness of the fabric, the amplitudes of P200 decreased with the smoothness of the fabric, and the amplitudes of P300 decreased with the smoothness and softness of the fabric. These results indicated that N100, P200, and P300 potentials could be used as neurophysiological response indexes of brain neurons to distinguish the subtle differences in fabric tactile properties. This finding not only laid a scientific theoretical basis for the brain perception mechanism of fabric tactile properties, but also provided a possibility for further quantification characterization of textile comfort perception.