Relationship between structure of finger tissue and location of tactile receptors

Abstract

There are several tactile receptors at specific locations in the tissue of human fingers. In this study we calculate in detail the deformation of finger tissue when a finger comes into contact with a rigid plate using a FE (finite element) model in order to clarify the reason for the precise location of the receptors. The FE model is constructed using the measured geometry and properties. As a result, we found that the strain energy is concentrated at tactile receptor locations. When a frictional force is applied, the stress/strain is concentrated near the edge of the contact area. By calculating using models with/without epidermal ridges/papillae, we found that the shape of the epidermal ridges/papillae influences the stress/strain distribution near the tactile receptors.