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Interacting forces between an object and the fingers induce slip events that are thought to provide information about grasp stability. To gain insight into this phenomenon, we made a transparent surface slip against a fixed fingerpad while monitoring skin deformation at the contact. Using microneurography, we simultaneously recorded the activity of single tactile afferents innervating the fingertips. This unique combination allowed us to describe how afferents respond to slip events and to relate their responses to surface deformations taking place inside their receptive fields. We found that all afferents were sensitive to slip events, but fast-adapting type I (FA-I) afferents in particular faithfully encoded compressive strain rates resulting from those slips. Given the high density of FA-I afferents in fingerpads, they are well suited to detect incipient slips and to provide essential information for the control of grip force during manipulation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.7554\/elife.64679","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,22]],"date-time":"2021-04-22T08:12:42Z","timestamp":1619079162000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.7554\/elife.64679","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":83,"title":["High-resolution imaging of skin deformation shows that afferents from human fingertips signal slip onset"],"prefix":"10.7554","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3974-7921","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Benoit P","family":"Delhaye","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics, Universit\u00e9 catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium"},{"name":"Institute of Neuroscience, Universit\u00e9 catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ewa","family":"Jarocka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Integrative Medical Biology, Ume\u00e5 University, Ume\u00e5, Sweden"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1094-4596","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Allan","family":"Barrea","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics, Universit\u00e9 catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium"},{"name":"Institute of Neuroscience, Universit\u00e9 catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jean-Louis","family":"Thonnard","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics, Universit\u00e9 catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium"},{"name":"Institute of Neuroscience, Universit\u00e9 catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Benoni","family":"Edin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Integrative Medical Biology, Ume\u00e5 University, Ume\u00e5, Sweden"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2032-3635","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Philippe","family":"Lef\u00e8vre","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics, Universit\u00e9 catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium"},{"name":"Institute of Neuroscience, Universit\u00e9 catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"4374","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"bib1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1574","DOI":"10.1098\/rsif.2011.0086","article-title":"Effect of skin hydration on the dynamics of fingertip gripping contact","volume":"8","author":"Andr\u00e9","year":"2011","journal-title":"Journal of the Royal Society Interface"},{"key":"bib2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"665","DOI":"10.1152\/jn.00249.2002","article-title":"Importance of cutaneous feedback in maintaining a secure grip during manipulation of hand-held objects","volume":"89","author":"Augurelle","year":"2003","journal-title":"Journal of Neurophysiology"},{"key":"bib3","article-title":"Finger pad mechanics during dexterous object manipulation","author":"Barrea","year":"2017","unstructured":"Barrea A, Delhaye BP, Lefevre P, Thonnard J-L. 2017. 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