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tactile perception

·November 7, 2025·7 min read

Touching Without Contact: We Physically Sense Objects Before Feeling Them

A new study shows that humans possess a form of “remote touch,” allowing them to detect hidden objects in sand before making direct contact. Participants sensed buried cubes by perceiving tiny mechanical reflections generated as they moved their fingertips through the sand.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 29, 2025·7 min read

How Neurons Feel Force: Uncovering the Physics of Touch

A groundbreaking study reveals how neurons sense and transmit mechanical forces across their membranes—a key to understanding touch, movement, and development. Using precision laser-based optical tweezers, researchers discovered that tension travels faster in touch-sensing neurons than in movement-sensing ones.

This shows a person surrounded by sound waves.

Auditory Neuroscience Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·October 15, 2025·5 min read

Feeling the Music: Touch Amplifies Emotional Power of Sound

A new study shows that combining touch with hearing profoundly intensifies emotional responses to music. Using a custom-built device that transforms sound into tactile vibrations, researchers found that people experienced more joy, connection, and reduced anxiety when they could both hear and feel the music.

This shows two people listening to music and touching arms.

Auditory Neuroscience Featured Neuroscience

·October 13, 2025·4 min read

Why the Brain Feels the Beat Better Through Sound Than Touch

A new study reveals that the human brain synchronizes more accurately with rhythm when listening to music than when feeling it through touch. When people tap along to sound, slow rhythmic brain waves align with the perceived beat, helping maintain steady timing.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 1, 2025·9 min read

Pianists Can Shape Piano Timbre Through Touch

A new study has scientifically confirmed that pianists can change piano timbre mid-performance through touch alone. Using high-speed sensors, researchers captured key movements and showed that subtle differences in motion aligned with the timbre that listeners perceived.

This shows a robotic hand touching a rose.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 8, 2025·5 min read

Prosthetic Hand Restores Real Sense of Touch

A next-generation neuroprosthetic hand that restores a sense of touch is moving into a pivotal home-use clinical trial. The “iSens” system uses implanted electrodes to read muscle intent and stimulate nerves, relaying fingertip sensations to the brain so the prosthesis feels embodied.

This brain image shows the thalamus highlighted.

Featured Neuroscience

·July 30, 2025·6 min read

Brain’s Sensory ‘Volume Control’ Discovered

Our sense of touch can feel sharp one moment and muted the next. New research reveals this inconsistency may be due to a feedback loop between the thalamus and somatosensory cortex, where thalamic input subtly changes how sensitive cortical neurons are to incoming stimuli.

This shows a hand holding a brain and another reaching out to touch it.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·April 9, 2025·4 min read

How the Brain Separates Touch We Choose vs. Touch We Receive

Touch is a vital sense, yet the brain processes active and passive touch using distinct pathways. In mice, researchers found that different regions of the thalamus—the brain’s sensory hub—respond uniquely depending on whether the animal actively explored with its whiskers or passively received a touch.

Featured Neuroscience

·March 11, 2024·5 min read

Revolutionizing Softness Perception in Robotics

Researchers developed SORI, a groundbreaking Softness Rendering Interface that can accurately simulate the perception of softness, addressing a long-standing challenge in robotics. By distinguishing between cutaneous and kinesthetic cues, SORI can replicate the softness of various materials, from marshmallows to beating hearts, offering vast applications in medicine, deep-sea exploration, and robot-assisted agriculture. This innovation not only advances the field of robotics but also provides a novel way to digitally transfer the sensation of touch, bridging a gap in human-robot interaction.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 14, 2023·5 min read

Phantom Touch: VR Reveals New Insights in Human Perception

Researchers discovered a 'phantom touch illusion' in virtual reality (VR), where users feel sensations without physical contact. This study, involving 36 volunteers, demonstrated that participants experienced a tingling sensation when virtually touching their bodies.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 27, 2023·5 min read

Hair Follicles’ Hidden Role in Touch Sensation

A new study uncovered a previously unknown mechanism in hair follicles that allows us to detect touch. Previously, sensation was attributed only to nerve endings in the skin, but this study reveals that cells within hair follicles can also sense touch.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 26, 2023·6 min read

Unlocking the Mystery of Skin Tightness

Researchers unlocked the mechanism behind the tight feeling of our skin post-cleanse and its relief post-moisturization. The study shows how external products induce mechanical changes on the skin's surface, creating sensations we can feel.