Tactile sensitivity of the tongue on photolithographically fabricated patterns

While the oral cavity is a sensory rich location, its potential as a site for tactile communication remains largely unexplored. The tactile sensitivity of the tongue (tip and anterior dorsal region) is investigated by using patterns fabricated with photolithography. Preliminary results are obtained by performing experiments of two-line separation and grating orientation on eight human subjects. Thresholds are estimated at 0.7 mm for tip and 0.85 mm for the anterior. Sensitivity indices from both experiments indicate the relative spatial resolution also lies between 0.5-1 mm.