{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T15:35:51Z","timestamp":1785425751891,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"Wiley","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,22]],"date-time":"2026-06-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782086400000},"content-version":"am","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,22]],"date-time":"2026-06-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782086400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,22]],"date-time":"2026-06-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782086400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/doi.wiley.com\/10.1002\/tdm_license_1.1"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000925","name":"National Health and Medical Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["APP1028284"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["APP1028284"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000925","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100025294","name":"Research Ireland","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["13\/RC\/2073_P2"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["13\/RC\/2073_P2"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100025294","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100018694","name":"HORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["101081457"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["101081457"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100018694","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000923","name":"Australian Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["DP230100048"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DP230100048"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000923","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000923","name":"Australian Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["DP200100630"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DP200100630"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000923","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["The Journal of Physiology"],"abstract":"\n Abstract<\/jats:title>\n \n Sinusoidal vibratory stimuli are frequently used to study human sensory perception but have the limitation that changes in vibration frequency are accompanied by changes in the number and type of activated mechanoreceptive afferents. Here we used trains of brief mechanical pulses to investigate the neural coding of vibrotactile perceived intensity by grouping pulses into bursts. These pulse trains evoke the same perceived frequency, determined by the interval between bursts, as we have previously demonstrated, and held constant across conditions. Subjects rated the perceived intensity using a magnitude estimation task for stimuli varying in the number of pulses per burst (up to four) and stimulation amplitude (5\u2013150 \u00b5m). In marked contrast to our previous findings using electrical stimulation, increasing the number of pulses per burst had only a minimal and inconsistent effect on perceived intensity. To explain this we simulated the responses of the afferent population across the hand using the TouchSim computational model. The model revealed that increasing pulse number, without changing amplitude, produced only a modest increase in total population spike count. This occurred because the population response was dominated by large numbers of afferents remote from the stimulation site, many of which failed to respond reliably to each pulse within a burst. In contrast increasing stimulus amplitude enhanced spatial recruitment, leading to greater population spike counts and increased perceived intensity. Together these results highlight the importance of both temporal and spatial summation in shaping tactile intensity perception and argue against a \u2018hot zone\u2019 model of intensity encoding.\n \n \n image<\/jats:alt-text>\n <\/jats:graphic>\n <\/jats:boxed-text>\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Key points<\/jats:title>\n \n \n \n Electrical stimulation of the finger has been shown to change perceived intensity when varying the number of pulses within a stimulus burst, indicating that touch\u2010sensitive nerve fibres encode intensity through the number of impulses they generate within bursts of activity.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:list-item>\n \n Here we used mechanical pulses applied to the skin to induce similar bursts of activity. In contrast to expectations, increasing the number of pulses within a burst did not consistently increase perceived intensity.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:list-item>\n \n We simulated the neural responses of the entire population of tactile nerve fibres in the hand, revealing that the burst pattern had only a small effect on nerve activity, which was dominated by large numbers of remote fibres that did not reliably follow bursts.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:list-item>\n \n These findings argue against a \u2018hot zone\u2019 model, where intensity is determined by nerve activity near the stimulus site, and instead suggest that the number of active fibres and overall activity are most significant.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:list-item>\n <\/jats:list>\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1113\/jp290236","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,22]],"date-time":"2026-06-22T17:24:52Z","timestamp":1782149092000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Vibrotactile intensity perception: Predominant influence of afferents recruited remote from stimulus site"],"prefix":"10.1113","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6403-4723","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kevin K. W.","family":"Ng","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"C\u00daRAM Research Ireland Centre for Medical Devices University of Galway Galway Ireland"},{"name":"Pharmacology and Therapeutics, School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences University of Galway Galway Ireland"},{"name":"School of Biomedical Sciences UNSW Sydney Sydney Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4916-1254","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ingvars","family":"Birznieks","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Biomedical Sciences UNSW Sydney Sydney Australia"},{"name":"Neuroscience Research Australia Sydney Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2968-7358","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Richard M.","family":"Vickery","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Biomedical Sciences UNSW Sydney Sydney Australia"},{"name":"Neuroscience Research Australia Sydney Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,22]]},"reference":[{"issue":"2","key":"e_1_2_5_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"165","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bbr.2008.02.044","article-title":"Tactile intensity and population codes","volume":"190","author":"Bensmaia S. 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InProceedings 10th Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems HAPTICS 2002 121\u2013128.IEEE.","DOI":"10.1109\/HAPTIC.2002.998949"},{"key":"e_1_2_5_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.7554\/eLife.46510","article-title":"Tactile sensory channels over\u2010ruled by frequency decoding system that utilizes spike pattern regardless of receptor type","volume":"8","author":"Birznieks I.","year":"2019","journal-title":"eLife"},{"issue":"10","key":"e_1_2_5_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1485","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cub.2017.04.011","article-title":"Spike timing matters in novel neuronal code involved in vibrotactile frequency perception","volume":"27","author":"Birznieks I.","year":"2017","journal-title":"Current Biology"},{"issue":"1","key":"e_1_2_5_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"120","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00230475","article-title":"Relationships between touch sensations and estimated population responses of peripheral afferent mechanoreceptors","volume":"94","author":"Cohen R. 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