Encoding/decoding of first and second order tactile afferents in a neurorobotic application.

We present a neurorobotic framework to investigate tactile information processing at the early stages of the somatosensory pathway. We focus on spatiotemporal coding of first and second order responses to Braille stimulation, which offers a suitable protocol to investigate the neural bases of fine touch discrimination. First, we model Slow Adaptive type I fingertip mechanoreceptor responses to Braille characters sensed both statically and dynamically.