DS8_mt_Cross-modal interactions and movement-related tactile gating: the role of vision_v1.0

<p>In this study, we investigated the velocity discrimination threshold of both sighted and blind individuals using dynamic stimuli. Participants were tasked with discriminating the faster stimulus from a sequence of two stimuli that varied in speed. We provided audio-tactile stimulation through a physical rotating wheel (tactile) and an attached auditory device (audio). Two experimental conditions were employed: (1) audio-tactile passive touch, where participants kept their finger still, and (2) audio-tactile active touch, where participants moved their finger in the opposite direction of the wheel's movement.</p><p>We measured the just noticeable difference (JND) and the point of subjective equality (PSE) for each condition of every subject.</p><p>The term 'subject' refers to the code assigned to each participant, where the presence of 'B' at the end of a subject's code signifies a blind participant. 'Age' represents the age of each participant, 'condition' indicates whether the tactile input was passive or active, and 'sensory_stimulus' signifies the audio-tactile stimulus provided. 'Standard_cm_sec' denotes the standard velocity of the wheel (3 cm/sec in our case), 'pse_cm_sec' represents the value of the point of subjective equality (PSE) obtained by the participant, 'jnd_cm_sec' signifies the value of our dependent variable, the just noticeable difference (JND) of each participant. 'Vision' indicates whether the subject was blind (B) or sighted (S). 'Blind_duration' corresponds to the number of years of blindness in our blind sample, while 'type_blindness' specifies whether the participant is classified as late blind (LB), early blind (EB), or a sighted control (SC).</p>