Haptic Memory
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Haptic memory is the form of
sensory memory During every moment of an organism's life, sensory information is being taken in by sensory receptors and processed by the nervous system. Sensory information is stored in sensory memory just long enough to be transferred to short-term memory. Hu ...
specific to touch
stimuli A stimulus is something that causes a physiological response. It may refer to: * Stimulation ** Stimulus (physiology), something external that influences an activity ** Stimulus (psychology), a concept in behaviorism and perception * Stimulus (eco ...
. Haptic memory is used regularly when assessing the necessary forces for gripping and interacting with familiar objects. It may also influence one's interactions with novel objects of an apparently similar size and density. Similar to visual iconic memory, traces of haptically acquired information are short lived and prone to decay after approximately two seconds. Haptic memory is best for stimuli applied to areas of the skin that are more sensitive to touch. Haptics involves at least two subsystems;
cutaneous Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different de ...
, or everything skin related, and
kinesthetic Proprioception ( ), also referred to as kinaesthesia (or kinesthesia), is the sense of self-movement, force, and body position. It is sometimes described as the "sixth sense". Proprioception is mediated by proprioceptors, mechanosensory neurons ...
, or joint angle and the relative location of body. Haptics generally involves active, manual examination and is quite capable of processing physical traits of objects and surfaces.


Overview

Perhaps the first experiment conducted to study the phenomenon of haptic memory was that of Bliss, Crane, Mansfield, and Townsend who investigated the characteristics of immediate recall for brief tactile stimuli applied to the hand. The results obtained showed a haptic memory store remarkably similar to the visual memory store suggested by Sperling in 1960, with a capacity of approximately four to five items. Similar to tests of visual sensory memory, it was also found that haptic memory performance was significantly improved with the use of partial report procedures. This particular finding is consistent with more recent research by Gallace in 2008. Bliss et al. interpreted this difference in partial report versus whole report as a sensory form of memory for passively presented tactile stimuli with a high capacity and short duration. Additional support for the short duration of haptic memory comes from studies by Gilson and Baddeley in 1969. According to these studies, memory for stimuli applied to the skin is resilient for approximately ten seconds after removal of the stimulus, even when the individual is engaged in tasks that inhibit verbal rehearsal. After this delay, the memory trace becomes vulnerable to forgetting as it decays from the haptic memory store and begins to rely on a more central memory store. Similar findings were later reported by Miles and Borthwick in 1996, who emphasized the role of tactile interference on discriminability of the target location and the role of central processing resources in consolidation of haptic memory. More recent experimental procedures and technologies such as minielectrode recording devices and
transcranial magnetic stimulation Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive form of brain stimulation in which a changing magnetic field is used to induce an electric current at a specific area of the brain through electromagnetic induction. An electric pulse gener ...
have allowed for mapping of brain areas involved in the storage of tactile memories. Implicated in most of these studies is the primary somatosensory cortex. More recent studies have also investigated a broader selection of participants, allowing for the discovery of an intact haptic memory in infants.


Neuroanatomy

Tactile memories are organized
somatotopically Somatotopy is the point-for-point correspondence of an area of the body to a specific point on the central nervous system. Typically, the area of the body corresponds to a point on the primary somatosensory cortex (postcentral gyrus). This cortex i ...
, following the organization of the
somatosensory cortex In physiology, the somatosensory system is the network of neural structures in the brain and body that produce the perception of touch (haptic perception), as well as temperature (thermoception), body position (proprioception), and pain. It is ...
. This means that areas close on the body surface receive nervous signals from areas that are close together on the brain surface. Several distinct areas of the
parietal lobe The parietal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The parietal lobe is positioned above the temporal lobe and behind the frontal lobe and central sulcus. The parietal lobe integrates sensory informa ...
are responsible for contributing to different aspects of haptic memory. Memory for the properties of stimuli such as roughness, spatial density, and texture involves activation of the
parietal operculum Parietal (literally: "pertaining or relating to walls") is an adjective used predominantly for the parietal lobe and other relevant anatomy Parietal may also refer to: Human anatomy Brain *The parietal lobe is found in all mammals. The human ...
. Properties of stimuli such as size and shape, as detected by touch receptors in the skin, are stored in the anterior part of the parietal lobe. Memory for spatial information such as the location of stimuli involves the right
superior parietal lobule The superior parietal lobule is bounded in front by the upper part of the postcentral sulcus, but is usually connected with the postcentral gyrus above the end of the sulcus. The superior parietal lobule contains Brodmann's areas brodmann area 5, ...
and
temporoparietal junction The temporoparietal junction (TPJ) is an area of the brain where the temporal and parietal lobes meet, at the posterior end of the lateral sulcus (Sylvian fissure). The TPJ incorporates information from the thalamus and the limbic system as wel ...
. Additional neuroimaging data has been provided by studies using microelectrodes implanted in the somatosensory cortex of monkeys. When performing a delayed match to sample task with objects of identical dimensions but different surface features, activity is observed in somatosensory neurons during perception and in the short-term memory for tactile stimuli. According to a study done by Bruce V. DiMattia, Keith A. Posley and Joaquin M. Fuster, it was found that monkeys were quite capable of concurrent Visual-to-Haptic as well as Haptic-to-Visual
crossmodal Crossmodal perception or cross-modal perception is perception that involves interactions between two or more different sensory modalities. Examples include synesthesia, sensory substitution and the McGurk effect, in which vision and hearing intera ...
matching of objects by size, shape and texture. It was also discovered that they were more adept at performing cross modal matching in the ''Visual-to-Haptic'' direction.


Development

Memory is important in infancy as it forms the basis for more complex procedures such as
learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machine learning, machines ...
and
reasoning Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, lang ...
. Studies of haptic memory in infants is particularly useful because it allows researchers to study the more perceptual representation of information as opposed to verbal or semantic aspects. Haptic abilities develop in stages in infants: The last two decades have allowed researchers to study the sensory system of infants which gives an insight to the initial stages of thinking, deciding and reasoning in a human brain. #Newborn: Haptic ability develops in the mouth, as it is essential for feeding. #1 month of age: Recognition of texture and shape #2 months of age: Recognition of familiar objects after 30 second delay #4 months of age: Recognize familiar objects after 2 minute delay Evidence of haptic memory was discovered in infants as young as two months by Myriam Lhote and Arlette Streti, who demonstrated that haptic
habituation Habituation is a form of non-associative learning in which an innate (non-reinforced) response to a stimulus decreases after repeated or prolonged presentations of that stimulus. Responses that habituate include those that involve the intact org ...
occurs asymmetrically between the hands of infants, and that differences in haptic memory exist between sexes. For instance, in 2-month-old infants, haptic habituation was found in both the right and the left hand. Babies were able to encode haptically some characteristics or features of objects without visual control with their left hand as well as with their right hand. In the experiment, haptic habituation was formed through an occurred stimuli and at the end, it has seen that even though stimuli was not present, infants still carry on their stimuli habit. It was also shown that infantile haptic memory is robust in that it is somewhat resistant to delays (especially in males). These findings support earlier results by Catherwood, which stated that 8-month-old infants were able to recognize a familiar shape after a five-minute delay. Studies by Millar on congenitally blind and blindfolded children have revealed the importance of movement and body-centered cues in haptic memory. While these cues are important in all individuals, blind children tend to rely on them heavily. Furthermore, it is proven that our haptic cues and memory affects our visual experience and the two experiences are linked for us to comprehend our surroundings.Kelly, J.W. & Avraamides, M.N. & Giudice, N. A. (2011) Haptic experiences influence visually acquired memories: Reference frames during multimodal spatial learning. Psychonomic bulletin & Review. 8:1119-1125.


Implicit

Implicit memory In psychology, implicit memory is one of the two main types of long-term human memory. It is acquired and used unconsciously, and can affect thoughts and behaviours. One of its most common forms is procedural memory, which allows people to perfo ...
can be referred to as the unconscious recollection of previously presented information. This type of memory influences one's actions and behaviors without the individual having any awareness of its availability for explicit recall. Implicit memory has been linked to phenomena such as skill acquisition,
priming Priming may refer to: * Priming (agriculture), a form of seed planting preparation, in which seeds are soaked before planting * Priming (immunology), a process occurring when a specific antigen is presented to naive lymphocytes causing them to d ...
, and
classical conditioning Classical conditioning (also known as Pavlovian or respondent conditioning) is a behavioral procedure in which a biologically potent stimulus (e.g. food) is paired with a previously neutral stimulus (e.g. a triangle). It also refers to the learni ...
. In some cases, tactile information is also remembered implicitly. Evidence for this comes from patients with damage to the right cerebral hemisphere, who, due to their brain damage, are unable to explicitly report any of the qualities of objects held in their left hand when another object is simultaneously presented in their right hand. Despite this fact, when the patients are asked to compare the characteristics of objects presented to either hand, their judgements are influenced by objects previously held in their right hand. This suggests that the patients have some memory for the properties of objects recently removed from their right hand that they are not consciously aware of, and that this memory is affecting their accuracy on subsequent tasks. Similar evidence has been found in healthy individuals of varying ages, and in patients with
Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
.


See also

*
Sensory memory During every moment of an organism's life, sensory information is being taken in by sensory receptors and processed by the nervous system. Sensory information is stored in sensory memory just long enough to be transferred to short-term memory. Hu ...
*
Iconic memory Iconic memory is the visual sensory memory register pertaining to the visual domain and a fast-decaying store of visual information. It is a component of the visual memory system which also includes visual short-term memory (VSTM) and long-term mem ...
*
Echoic memory Echoic memory is the sensory memory that registers specific to auditory information (sounds). Once an auditory stimulus is heard, it is stored in memory so that it can be processed and understood. Unlike most visual memory, where a person can choo ...
*
Olfactory Memory Olfactory memory refers to the recollection of odors. Studies have found various characteristics of common memories of odor memory including persistence and high resistance to interference. Explicit memory is typically the form focused on in the s ...


References

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