Human Pressure Perception Values for Constant and Moving One- and Two-Point Discrimination

Abstract

Despite the need to evaluate sensibility for accurate diagnosis and the need to record the degree of sensation achieved in the postoperative period, the clinician has been without the ability to measure human pressure perception accurately. Traditionally, the Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments were used to measure the static one-point discrimination threshold. A new sensory testing instrument, the Pressure-Specifying Sensory Device, was used to obtain normative data from the index and little finger of the dominant hand in 35 people ranging in age from 16 to 83 with no known neurologic impairment. Pressure perceptions for static one- and two-point discrimination (s1PD, s2PD) and moving one- and two-point discrimination (m1PD, m2PD) were recorded. The mean values (+/- SD) were 0.13 +/- 0.06, 0.24 +/- 0.12, 0.22 +/- 0.10, and 0.26 +/- 0.13 gm/mm2 for s1PD, s2PD, m1PD, and m2PD, respectively, on the index finger and 0.07 +/- 0.05, 0.16 +/- 0.12, 0.17 +/- 0.07, and 0.21 +/- 0.14 gm/mm2 for s1PD, s2PD, m1PD, and m2PD, respectively, for the little finger. The little finger was significantly more sensitive than the index finger (p less than 0.001). There was no significant change in pressure perception with increasing age.