1984 — 1988 |
Verrillo, Ronald |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Human Responses to Vibrotactile Stimulation |
0.915 |
1985 — 1991 |
Verrillo, Ronald |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Cutaneous Mechanoreceptor Systems
The long-range goals of the project remain essentially unchanged from previous years, that is, to extend our understanding of the psychophysical characteristics of responses to vibrotactile stimulation in humans within the context of the possible receptor/neural mechanisms that may underlie those characteristics. Beyond these fundamental and basic goals, and in the realm of application, information processing by cutaneous tactile systems may be utilized when the effectiveness of conventional channels is limited, as in high noise environments, when existing channels are overtaxed, or when existing channels suffer a sensory deficit. There still exist sizable gaps in our knowledge of the fundamental characteristics of the cutaneous sensory systems and that knowledge lags far behind the information that is available for the auditory and visual systems. The basic aim of the proposed research is to close these gaps. The experiments fall into five general problem areas: 1) spatiotemporal aspects of vibrotactile sensation, especially those relating to the development of tactile communication devices; 2) further exploration of parameters relating to the newly developed four-channel model of cutaneous mechanoreception at threshold; 3) suprathreshold levels of stimulation; 4) cross-modality interactions; and; 5) effects of peripheral neuropathies associated with carpal tunnel syndrome, vibration "white finger", and diabetes. The experiments are targeted on exploring the functional properties of both Pacinian and non-Pacinian receptor systems, within the context of the four-channel model.
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0.915 |
1987 — 1998 |
Verrillo, Ronald |
P01Activity Code Description: For the support of a broadly based, multidisciplinary, often long-term research program which has a specific major objective or a basic theme. A program project generally involves the organized efforts of relatively large groups, members of which are conducting research projects designed to elucidate the various aspects or components of this objective. Each research project is usually under the leadership of an established investigator. The grant can provide support for certain basic resources used by these groups in the program, including clinical components, the sharing of which facilitates the total research effort. A program project is directed toward a range of problems having a central research focus, in contrast to the usually narrower thrust of the traditional research project. Each project supported through this mechanism should contribute or be directly related to the common theme of the total research effort. These scientifically meritorious projects should demonstrate an essential element of unity and interdependence, i.e., a system of research activities and projects directed toward a well-defined research program goal. |
Intensity Effects in the Auditory and Tactile Systems
A group of sensory scientists who have cooperated formally and informally for many years proposes to focus their joint research on specific, long- range problems of intensity effects and processing in the auditory and tactile systems. The broad goals of the project remain essentially unchanged from the first submission in 1986. However, the experience gained in the first two years of focusing on a single problem has resulted in a better integration of the component projects and clearer concepts of how two sensory systems, hearing and touch, may be related to a common theme. A multidisciplinary approach is being used, including 1) human and animal behavior, 2) neurophysiology, and 3) neuroanatomy, with the specific goal of providing definitive answers to still unresolved problems of transduction and intensity coding in the two sensory systems. Specific experiments within the sensory modalities run partially parallel and partially complementary courses, so that the three component projects are interlocked in their goals. The approach of systems analysis is being used. Global functions are determined from human psychophysics and animal behavior (Component Project 1). Project 1 experiments are focused on the relation between intensity discrimination and loudness, intensity effects in the discrimination of complex stimuli, and the correlation of behavioral and neural responses within the two modalities. The contributions of relevant components of the systems to the global functions are being sought through direct physiological (Component Project 2) and morphological (Component Project 3) experiments aided by mathematical analysis. Project 2 experiments concern the effects of stimulus intensity on the neural responses in the auditory and tactile periphery. Project 3 is targeted on the role in transduction and intensity effects played by the auditory hair- cells, eighth nerve and cochlear nucleus, and by the various receptor and fiber types in the peripheral tactile system. The experiments involve vertebrate animals, including humans. All of the proposed experiments are consistent with our group's expertise and long-range goals of elucidating questions of fundamental importance to our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying human behavior.
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0.915 |
1991 — 1993 |
Verrillo, Ronald |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Aging Effects On Vibrotactile Sensation @ Syracuse University At Syracuse
Being proposed is a research project to investigate the effects of aging on the sense of touch. The project has a twofold purpose: 1) to bring our understanding of the effects of aging on touch up to our level of understanding of the senses of vision and hearing; and 2) for the practical reason that as we age sensory deficits in hearing create serious problems in understanding speech. Our experiments are designed to study those factors of cutaneous sensation that will lead to an effective means of utilizing the skin as a communication channel for enhancing the perception of speech. The specific experiments focus on the effects of aging on: 1) the effects of aging on absolute vibrotactile sensitivity of each of the four mechanoreceptive channels in glabrous and hairy skin; 2) the effects of aging on spatial and temporal summation in the detection of vibrotactile stimuli with an objective of examining tactile sensory systems at a central level of the nervous system; 3) the effects of aging on vibrotactile subjective magnitude and its rate of growth as a function of stimulus intensity; and 4) the effects of aging on vibrotactile temporal acuity as measured by the modulation transfer function, forward masking, and subjective duration of stimulation. The parameters to be studied have been selected for their importance to touch sensations and in the perception of speech.
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0.915 |
1991 — 1993 |
Verrillo, Ronald |
P01Activity Code Description: For the support of a broadly based, multidisciplinary, often long-term research program which has a specific major objective or a basic theme. A program project generally involves the organized efforts of relatively large groups, members of which are conducting research projects designed to elucidate the various aspects or components of this objective. Each research project is usually under the leadership of an established investigator. The grant can provide support for certain basic resources used by these groups in the program, including clinical components, the sharing of which facilitates the total research effort. A program project is directed toward a range of problems having a central research focus, in contrast to the usually narrower thrust of the traditional research project. Each project supported through this mechanism should contribute or be directly related to the common theme of the total research effort. These scientifically meritorious projects should demonstrate an essential element of unity and interdependence, i.e., a system of research activities and projects directed toward a well-defined research program goal. |
Instensity Effects in the Auditory and Tactile Systems @ Syracuse University At Syracuse
A group of sensory scientists who have cooperated formally and informally for many years proposes to focus their joint research on specific, long- range problems of intensity effects and processing in the auditory and tactile systems. The broad goals of the project remain essentially unchanged from the first submission in 1986. However, the experience gained in the first two years of focusing on a single problem has resulted in a better integration of the component projects and clearer concepts of how two sensory systems, hearing and touch, may be related to a common theme. A multidisciplinary approach is being used, including 1) human and animal behavior, 2) neurophysiology, and 3) neuroanatomy, with the specific goal of providing definitive answers to still unresolved problems of transduction and intensity coding in the two sensory systems. Specific experiments within the sensory modalities run partially parallel and partially complementary courses, so that the three component projects are interlocked in their goals. The approach of systems analysis is being used. Global functions are determined from human psychophysics and animal behavior (Component Project 1). Project 1 experiments are focused on the relation between intensity discrimination and loudness, intensity effects in the discrimination of complex stimuli, and the correlation of behavioral and neural responses within the two modalities. The contributions of relevant components of the systems to the global functions are being sought through direct physiological (Component Project 2) and morphological (Component Project 3) experiments aided by mathematical analysis. Project 2 experiments concern the effects of stimulus intensity on the neural responses in the auditory and tactile periphery. Project 3 is targeted on the role in transduction and intensity effects played by the auditory hair- cells, eighth nerve and cochlear nucleus, and by the various receptor and fiber types in the peripheral tactile system. The experiments involve vertebrate animals, including humans. All of the proposed experiments are consistent with our group's expertise and long-range goals of elucidating questions of fundamental importance to our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying human behavior.
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0.915 |
1997 — 2001 |
Verrillo, Ronald |
P01Activity Code Description: For the support of a broadly based, multidisciplinary, often long-term research program which has a specific major objective or a basic theme. A program project generally involves the organized efforts of relatively large groups, members of which are conducting research projects designed to elucidate the various aspects or components of this objective. Each research project is usually under the leadership of an established investigator. The grant can provide support for certain basic resources used by these groups in the program, including clinical components, the sharing of which facilitates the total research effort. A program project is directed toward a range of problems having a central research focus, in contrast to the usually narrower thrust of the traditional research project. Each project supported through this mechanism should contribute or be directly related to the common theme of the total research effort. These scientifically meritorious projects should demonstrate an essential element of unity and interdependence, i.e., a system of research activities and projects directed toward a well-defined research program goal. |
Behavioral Intensity Effects--Tactile
The overall objective of this component project is to understand batter the coding ofintensity in the tactile systems. The motivation for the experiments derive from three sources: Zwislocki's theory that the jnd is independent of the shape of the sensation magnitude function, that the integrity of the four-channel model persists and can be identified at the superthreshold levels of stimulation, and that our findings can be generalized to include both the auditory and tactile systems. The research plan is divided into four specific, but not mutually exclusive areas, those being: 1) channel specificity, 2) temporal parameters, 3) response variability and 4) interactions between pain and taction. Specific experiments include measurements of the jnd within each of the four tactile channels; the effects of temperature, contractor indentation, and the use of a surround of the jnd; to test further the independence of the jnd from the shape of the sensation magnitude function when sensation magnitude is held constant; the source of discontinuities in the subjective-magnitude functions, the effects of variation temporal parameters on the jnd and procedures using pedestal and test stimuli and testing the Zwislocki theory of intensity coding by the standard deviations of subjective-magnitude matches. Standard and proven psychophysical procedures will be used throughout, those being: 1) DL/JND; 2) Sensation Magnitude; 3) Masking and Adaption; 4) Temporal and Spatial Summation and 5) Thermally Induced Pain. The theoretical bases that drive all specific hypotheses are the four channel model of cutaneous mechanoreception and Zwislocki's theory of differential intensity sensitivity, developed under the aegis of this program project. Extensive modifications have been made to satisfy the concern of the sensory disorders and language review group.
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0.915 |
1997 — 2001 |
Verrillo, Ronald |
P01Activity Code Description: For the support of a broadly based, multidisciplinary, often long-term research program which has a specific major objective or a basic theme. A program project generally involves the organized efforts of relatively large groups, members of which are conducting research projects designed to elucidate the various aspects or components of this objective. Each research project is usually under the leadership of an established investigator. The grant can provide support for certain basic resources used by these groups in the program, including clinical components, the sharing of which facilitates the total research effort. A program project is directed toward a range of problems having a central research focus, in contrast to the usually narrower thrust of the traditional research project. Each project supported through this mechanism should contribute or be directly related to the common theme of the total research effort. These scientifically meritorious projects should demonstrate an essential element of unity and interdependence, i.e., a system of research activities and projects directed toward a well-defined research program goal. |
Core--Technical Support Facility
surgery; photography; biomedical equipment resource; biomedical facility; bioimaging /biomedical imaging;
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0.915 |
2005 |
Verrillo, Ronald |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Morphological Organization of Cutaneous Mechanoreceptors
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The sense of touch is pivotal to survival. When it is corrupted through disease, environmental and homeostatic conditions cannot be sensed, resulting in major physical, experiential and cognitive deficiencies. Furthermore, the sense of touch often becomes the surrogate aid for the deaf or blind, perhaps best exemplified by Braille. In spite of its importance for human survival, comparatively little is known about the sense of touch when compared to hearing and vision. Thus the long-term objective of the research program is to determine the underlying bases for somatosensory sensation and perception. In order to achieve this ultimate goal it will be necessary to determine the relationships among the physical parameters of the stimulus, the underlying physiological and neurochemical mechanisms and the anatomical organization, linking these factors to psychophysical results and behavioral observations. In the short-term, the duration of the proposed research, we will perform anatomical investigations on the hairless (glabrous) skin of mammals (cat, monkey and human), which will test several hypotheses regarding the sense of touch, and lay a basis for future, additional models for taction. For example, we will determine, quantitatively, the organization of Merkel cell-neurite complexes within the skin. Additional experiments will determine nerve-fiber innervation patterns of Merkel cell-neurite complexes and Meissner corpuscles. These results will complement those determined during the previous years of funding. As an outgrowth of the results obtained over the previous years of funding we will also concentrate on the Pacinian corpuscle as a model system. We will determine how the supporting cells (i.e. lamellae) may be involved in transduction mechanisms and whether the mechanosensitive channels found in other mechano-sensitive sensory systems (auditory) are playing a role in transduction within the somatosensory system. This issue is important since recent work from our laboratory indicates the, unlike previous research, the accessory capsule of the PC does not produce flittering of vibratory stimuli but more like creats an environment to assist mechanotransduction. This may also be true of the support cells surrounding the auditory hair cells.
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0.915 |