Effect of the number of presses on the accuracy of discriminating hardness

Abstract

Acupuncturists determine muscle stiffness by pressing their fingers down. To shorten the palpation time and minimize discomfort to the patient, a good palpation technique is required to determine the stiffness of the patient's muscles with as few presses as possible. However, palpation is dependent on the experience of the practitioner. Therefore, an investigation of human hardness discrimination characteristics is necessary to provide some quantitative guidance. In this study, to determine the relationship between different numbers of presses and the accuracy of discriminating hardness, we investigated the differential threshold of hardness for different numbers of presses (1, 3, or 5). We used 7 elastic test pieces, each with a different Young's modulus, as the presented stimuli. We conducted an experiment using the constant stimuli method to calculate the differential threshold of hardness as an evaluation index of hardness identification. In the experiment, the participants repeatedly pressed for either 1, 3, or 5 sets by using 2 presented stimuli and then distinguished the hardness of the stimuli. The results of the experiment showed that when the pressing forces were 5 and 10 N, as the number of presses decreased, the differential threshold of hardness increased. However, when the pressing force was 15 N, the differential threshold of hardness was small regardless of the number of indentations. This knowledge will be useful for the improvement of the palpation technique in acupuncture schools. For example, the index of the hardness discrimination characteristic used in this study may be used as a quantitative numerical target and for performance evaluation.

Keywords

• hardness discrimininability
• tactile sense
• number of presses
• acupuncturist
• human forefinger
• press force
• constant method
• differential threshold