The Effect of Tactile Stimulation and Imagery for a Brief Vibratory Stimulus on Fingertip

Tactile Imagery (TI) refers to the cognitive depiction of tactile sensation (TS), even in the absence of any physical stimuli. The potential applications of TI span across various fields, including rehabilitation, virtual reality, and brain-computer interfaces. Studies have shown that imagining vibrotactile stimuli has similar cortical activity to receiving an actual vibration. In the current study, brief vibrotactile stimulation was applied at the digit pads of participants’ left hand to investigate their cortical activity and compare the same with tactile imagery. The result showed an event-related desynchronization (ERD) for both TI and TS with TI showing a pronounced ERD compared to TS.