Vibration perception, believed to be an elaboration of touch, pressure, and position senses,1,2 has long been measured with the tuning fork. This instrument is not appropriate for quantitative studies, and numerous devices have been used to determine normal ranges of vibration perception in human subjects. Previous investigators2-6 have not agreed on what is normal, nor have they published results in comparable absolute units for subjects of different ages over a reasonably wide range of frequencies. Such information is needed for a better understanding of this complex tactile sense and its characteristics in normal persons as they grow older, as well as in persons with disturbances of the nervous system.
Through the cooperation of a manufacturer of electronic equipment, a vibration generator or vibrator was assembled. This assembly provided a tactor in the form of a steel ring, a vibrator, an oscillator and power amplifier