Taking the rough with the smooth: aging effects on tactile surface texture perception
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Nottingham
Department Name: Sch of Psychology
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Technical Summary
The proposed project is a collaboration involving expertise in academia and industry to understand how information from multiple sources and senses is combined to perceive surface texture and how this process changes with age. Different textures, including roughness (ranging over smooth, fine, coarse) and surface friction (ranging from slippery to sticky), are known to be perceived via a combination of tactile and proprioceptive information mediated by receptors in skin and muscle. However, there is no formal model of how movement, tactile and proprioceptive inputs are integrated. Moreover, little is known about how other sensory cues contribute to the final percept, despite recent compelling evidence that touch is a multisensory experience that changes throughout the lifespan. This project combines behavioural and brain imaging experiments to relate changes in tactile surface perception with age to changes in skin biomechanics and to develop a Bayesian model of texture-based perceptual decisions. The model will be extended to a consumer product-testing environment to measure how texture is used to judge cleanliness in dish washing.
Three partners, Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham and Procter & Gamble, will take part in 3 work packages. WP 1 will measure the behavioural effects of varying texture stimuli on older and younger adults' performance on perceptual decisions. This will be the first step towards a model of the factors influencing texture perception. WP 2 will measure neural activity in brain regions selective for touch, auditory and visual stimuli as well as in 'higher' cognitive regions. This will allow us to understand the level of multisensory influence on texture perception, and if this varies as sensory abilities change with age. WP 3, will assess how texture perception is related to concepts of cleanliness and washing in order to evaluate how well our models generalize to everyday situations and product development.
Three partners, Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham and Procter & Gamble, will take part in 3 work packages. WP 1 will measure the behavioural effects of varying texture stimuli on older and younger adults' performance on perceptual decisions. This will be the first step towards a model of the factors influencing texture perception. WP 2 will measure neural activity in brain regions selective for touch, auditory and visual stimuli as well as in 'higher' cognitive regions. This will allow us to understand the level of multisensory influence on texture perception, and if this varies as sensory abilities change with age. WP 3, will assess how texture perception is related to concepts of cleanliness and washing in order to evaluate how well our models generalize to everyday situations and product development.
Planned Impact
Procter & Gamble (P&G) has a formal collaboration with the University of Birmingham in the area of product formulation and engineering. Formulated products contain a wide range of different active ingredients that can interact with each other in a synergistic or detrimental manner. The products' chemistry, in conjunction with the processing of the product is what ultimately determines the products' chemical and physical properties and the consumer's perception when using a product or interacting with surfaces treated with the product. Understanding the process of how the consumer interacts with the products and the surfaces on which the products act is therefore seen as critical by P&G as they seek to optimize product design for consumer benefit. The proposed research area opens up a novel opportunity for collaboration with psychologists at Birmingham and Nottingham, which can help P&G in correlating how product characteristics are perceived by the product user's senses, especially touch. Thus, a major impact of this project will be commercial, with important additional impact envisaged in health/clinical settings and in public engagement and information.
Industrial/Economic:
Dish washing. We expect a direct contribution to product design and improvement from the understanding of the consumer experience of using washing products, in terms of product design (given improved understanding of touch sensing abilities) in order supplement the designer's traditional mix of implicit knowledge and inspiration. The chosen target for short and medium term impact is via hand dishwashing liquid. Active touch is used every day to assess dirt or grease (consider running your finger over a shelf, or plates in the washing up). Cleanliness of dishes is important, both for those living independently, but also for those living in supported or cared for environments. As touch declines with age, it may be increasingly difficult to discriminate surface cleanliness with touch and there may be an increased reliance on vision to compensate. Products and strategies can be designed to 'fit' with these changes. The improvement of food preparation surface and eating utensil cleanliness is particularly critical in healthcare or nursing settings but also in the home. Improvements in the ease of cleaning would reduce costs for healthcare and improve well-being.
Coping with aging effects on touch. The effects of aging on active touch are not well understood. The methods for studying active touch developed in the project and the findings about aging effects on skin biomechanics and multisensory integration for surface perception will be explored with stakeholder groups including those working in elderly product design, for example, developing skin creams to help with skin hydration. Increasing the understanding of normal capacity and changes with age will also have implications for assessment in diagnosis and treatment of diseases affecting touch including peripheral vascular problems (eg diabetes), and disorders of the central nervous system (eg stroke). The incidence of many of these diseases increases with age so understanding the typical ranges of performance will aid in identifying the non-typical individual. Furthermore this will also aid in the planning of rehabilitation for those with impairments, for instance by encouraging use of alternate sensory information or different movement patterns in activities of daily living.
Public awareness.
There is general awareness of the decline of vision (at least to the extent of increased spectacle use) or hearing (hearing aids), but there is little knowledge of the typical decline of touch. Many older people will experience declines in tactile sensitivity so it may be helpful and reassuring, both to them and their carers, to understand normal changes that occur with aging and it may be useful to understand the role of the other senses in reducing the impact of the changes in touch.
Industrial/Economic:
Dish washing. We expect a direct contribution to product design and improvement from the understanding of the consumer experience of using washing products, in terms of product design (given improved understanding of touch sensing abilities) in order supplement the designer's traditional mix of implicit knowledge and inspiration. The chosen target for short and medium term impact is via hand dishwashing liquid. Active touch is used every day to assess dirt or grease (consider running your finger over a shelf, or plates in the washing up). Cleanliness of dishes is important, both for those living independently, but also for those living in supported or cared for environments. As touch declines with age, it may be increasingly difficult to discriminate surface cleanliness with touch and there may be an increased reliance on vision to compensate. Products and strategies can be designed to 'fit' with these changes. The improvement of food preparation surface and eating utensil cleanliness is particularly critical in healthcare or nursing settings but also in the home. Improvements in the ease of cleaning would reduce costs for healthcare and improve well-being.
Coping with aging effects on touch. The effects of aging on active touch are not well understood. The methods for studying active touch developed in the project and the findings about aging effects on skin biomechanics and multisensory integration for surface perception will be explored with stakeholder groups including those working in elderly product design, for example, developing skin creams to help with skin hydration. Increasing the understanding of normal capacity and changes with age will also have implications for assessment in diagnosis and treatment of diseases affecting touch including peripheral vascular problems (eg diabetes), and disorders of the central nervous system (eg stroke). The incidence of many of these diseases increases with age so understanding the typical ranges of performance will aid in identifying the non-typical individual. Furthermore this will also aid in the planning of rehabilitation for those with impairments, for instance by encouraging use of alternate sensory information or different movement patterns in activities of daily living.
Public awareness.
There is general awareness of the decline of vision (at least to the extent of increased spectacle use) or hearing (hearing aids), but there is little knowledge of the typical decline of touch. Many older people will experience declines in tactile sensitivity so it may be helpful and reassuring, both to them and their carers, to understand normal changes that occur with aging and it may be useful to understand the role of the other senses in reducing the impact of the changes in touch.
People |
ORCID iD |
Harriet Allen (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Allen, H. A.
(2023)
Introduction to Biological Psychology
Broadbent Hannah E.
(2021)
Sensitivities in luminance and amplitude may not predict sensitivity to shape-from-shading
in PERCEPTION
Broadbent Hannah E.
(2021)
The effects of carrier spatial frequency and amplitude modulation signal on shape-from-shading depth judgements in older adults
in PERCEPTION
Broadbent Hannah E.
(2021)
The effects of noise carriers on first-order shape-from-shading depth judgements in older adults
in I-PERCEPTION
Loomes A
(2023)
Somatosensory Research Methods
Roberts R
(2024)
Visual effects on tactile texture perception
in Scientific Reports
Roberts R
(2023)
Evidence for vibration coding of sliding tactile textures in auditory cortex
in Frontiers in Neuroscience
Roberts RD
(2020)
Contact forces in roughness discrimination.
in Scientific reports
Description | Touch perception changes with age and this depends on movement patterns and task. For example, contact forces vary with the person and the texture being touched. This is important because it affects how cues are combined to offset the effects of ageing. |
Exploitation Route | We hold a grant with Trinity College Dublin to extend this work and are developing this further in collaboration with City Arts and other organisations. Further publications are in progress. |
Sectors | Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Retail,Transport |
Description | Evaluating Multisensory Stimuli as a Mechanism to Boost Cognition and Wellbeing in Old Age |
Amount | £525,095 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ES/V000071/1 |
Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2021 |
End | 12/2024 |
Description | Seeing How You Feel: Multisensory Enhancement Of Touch In Ageing |
Amount | £9,516 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ES/V007904/1 |
Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2021 |
End | 01/2022 |
Title | Functional imaging of brain activity during applicaiton of various textures to the finger |
Description | A standardised procedure has been developed for assessing brain activity during tactile contact with surfaces of varying roughness presented either with static pressure or sliding across the finger pad. |
Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | Data are currently being collected to contrast brain activity during toiuch in young and lder adults |
Title | Texture discrimination methods |
Description | A robust psychophysical method using 2 interval forced choice discrimination with contact force measurement and finger motion capture has been developed for testing texture discrimination in young and older adult participants. |
Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | Data are nw being collected to contrast young and older adult performance |
Description | Ageing Touch Ireland/UK partnership |
Organisation | Trinity College Dublin |
Country | Ireland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We have regularly met online, and have met in person when restrictions allowed. We have hosted a series of expert talks. We have hosted a series of workshops with community stakeholders to co-create our research. |
Collaborator Contribution | Hosted meetings in person and developed collaborations |
Impact | Community workshops |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Aging touch industrial collaboration |
Organisation | Procter & Gamble |
Department | Brussels Innovation Centre |
Country | Belgium |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | The taking the rough with the smooth project involves 13 studies, grouped into 3 work packages (WPs). WP1, with 7 studies, focuses on psychophysics and modelling of texture discrimination (O1,O3), WP2, with 3 studies, centres on brain function through functional imaging and electrical stimulation (O2). WP3, with 3 studies, translates the research findings into understanding surface texture perception in the applied context of discriminating changes in surface coating due to the use of surfactants (washing up liquid) to remove grease and deposits when hand washing plates (O4). WP3 is being run in collaboration with Procter & Gamble BIC. |
Collaborator Contribution | Procter & Gamble BIC will provide access to research facilities at their consumer testing centre at BIC |
Impact | no impacts yet |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | Aging touch industrial collaboration |
Organisation | Procter & Gamble |
Department | Brussels Innovation Centre |
Country | Belgium |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | The taking the rough with the smooth project involves 13 studies, grouped into 3 work packages (WPs). WP1, with 7 studies, focuses on psychophysics and modelling of texture discrimination (O1,O3), WP2, with 3 studies, centres on brain function through functional imaging and electrical stimulation (O2). WP3, with 3 studies, translates the research findings into understanding surface texture perception in the applied context of discriminating changes in surface coating due to the use of surfactants (washing up liquid) to remove grease and deposits when hand washing plates (O4). WP3 is being run in collaboration with Procter & Gamble BIC. |
Collaborator Contribution | Procter & Gamble BIC will provide access to research facilities at their consumer testing centre at BIC |
Impact | no impacts yet |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | Touch in Ageing: City Arts |
Organisation | City Arts (Nottingham) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Collaborating to create impact and further funding |
Collaborator Contribution | Artist engagement (Graham Elstone) and project management |
Impact | Funding from ESRC/IRC, artistic artifacts |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Collaborative Visit to P & G |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | A visit by Uni of Nottingham and Uni Birmingham to Protor and Gamble in Brussels. The visit included expert presentations on the project, seminars on business skills by industry leaders and discussions on industry activities and future works |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Creepy crawling |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | oster and demonstrations exploring touch with Professor Alan Wing and his BBSRC project team including Al Loomes and Roberta Roberts from the School of Psychology. How does sense of touch differ across different species and what does this tell us? What do would touch be like for zombies versus werewolves and why might they be different? |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Exploring touch through the lifespan |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The changes in perception of touch, and how it relates to other senses, is not well understood. There is considerable evidence that coarse and fine textures are perceived via different brain mechanisms. For instance, fine texture seems to make use of vibration sensors whereas coarse textures are more likely to use sensors specific to shape. This leads to different predictions about how multisensory input might be combined. This workshop focuses on how older people might combine information across senses to understand touch. This activity is first designed to communicate our work and engage with our users. The workshop (max 3 hours) involves approximately 10 participants discussing their experience of touch and how it changes with age. The event is be facilitated by a creative artist (http://grahamelstone.mystrikingly.com/#creative-education) who is experienced with similar events. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Science in the Park |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Science in the Park is an event for everyone, held in a stately home in Nottingham. We exhibited demonstrations from our project to the public. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | http://nottsbsa.org/science-park-2019/science-fair-science-park-2019/ |