Influences of low and high frequency oscillation upon spatio-tactile resolution.

Abstract It is generally assumed that the major prerequisites for accurate spatio-tactile localization are small receptive fields with minimal overlap. To test this assumption, psychophysical thresholds for two-point and point localization were obtained with the usual steady stimuli and with stimuli oscillating at 10 or 300 Hz. Receptive fields have been shown in other studies to be smaller for oscillating than for steady stimuli. It was found that both 10 and 300 Hz oscillations decreased two-point thresholds but increased point-localization thresholds with reference to the control series using steady stimulation. A theoretical account of these results is given.