Influence of Temperature Stimulus Duration and Stimulus Onset Asynchrony on the Rate of Occurrence of Apparent Movement: A Study Based on the Temperature Sense of the Human Palm

Abstract

Recently, the number of studies concerning the development of an interface device using the tactile sense has increased. In this study, we focused on apparent movement occurring in response to temperature stimuli. Apparent movement has been widely studied; however, knowledge regarding apparent movement occurring in response to temperature stimuli is limited. Moreover, the relationship between the rate of occurrence of apparent movement and the factors associated with the occurrence of this movement remains incompletely understood. Therefore, we performed an experiment to evaluate the effect of 2 factors (stimulus duration and stimulus onset asynchrony) on the rate of occurrence of apparent movement. In this experiment, 10 healthy men were asked to place their hand on Peltier elements and answer whether apparent movement occurred. The results of our study show the presence of appropriate conditions for the 2 factors that increase the occurrence rate of apparent movement. Moreover, a strong correlation was found between the rate of occurrence of the apparent movement and clarity of the movement.