Biomechanical filtering supports efficient tactile encoding in the human hand

Abstract Touching an object elicits skin oscillations that are biomechanically transmitted throughout the hand, driving responses in thousands of tactile receptors, including numerous exquisitely sensitive Pacinian corpuscles (PCs). Accepted descriptions of PC functionality characterize their response properties as highly stereotyped, based on experimental data gathered when stimuli are applied near the receptor. However, during natural touch, spiking activity in the majority of PCs is evoked by