An undergraduate laboratory exercise to study sensory inhibition.

Sensory inhibition was first described by von Békésy as a process in which excitation of a field of sensory neurons leads to the reduction of activity of surrounding neurons and thus promotes contrast enhancement of the excited field. In the context of somatosensory cortex, the cortical neurons excited by touch or vibration will suppress excitation of neurons from surrounding receptive fields. USING TACTILE STIMULATORS BOTH DESIGNED AND FABRICATED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL, WE CONDUCTED TWO SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS IN WHICH SENSORY INHIBITION PLAYS A ROLE IN INFORMATION PROCESSING: a unilateral study in which stimuli are delivered to the digits of one hand, and a bilateral study in which stimuli are delivered to the digits of both hands.