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tactile sensation

Auditory Neuroscience Featured Neuroscience

·December 18, 2024·7 min read

The Brain Combines Touch and Sound to Enhance Sensory Experiences

The inferior colliculus, a midbrain region known for sound processing, also plays a role in touch sensation by integrating tactile and auditory signals. Pacinian corpuscles, highly sensitive skin mechanoreceptors, relay high-frequency vibrations to this brain area, amplifying sensory experiences. This mechanism explains phenomena like feeling music vibrations during a concert and highlights the brain's adaptability in processing multisensory information.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 4, 2024·7 min read

16 Nerve Cell Types Identified in Human Touch

Researchers identified 16 distinct types of nerve cells involved in human touch and compared them with those in mice and macaques, showing both shared and unique traits. The study reveals unexpected complexities in how nerve cells respond to stimuli, suggesting a sensory system that integrates multiple types of sensations.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience Pain

·August 20, 2024·3 min read

Molecule Discovery Could Revolutionize Chronic Pain Treatment

Researchers have identified a natural molecule, phosphatidic acid, that reduces the sensitivity of touch-sensing ion channels, providing a promising new avenue for managing chronic pain. By increasing levels of this molecule, cells become less sensitive to touch, which was confirmed through tests on sensory neurons and in mice. This discovery could lead to more targeted and effective treatments for conditions involving inflammatory pain.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 29, 2024·4 min read

Illusory Touch: Creating Real Sensations with Phantom Vibrations

Researchers discovered the minimal distance required for a vibrating point to create a phantom sensation of movement on the skin. By placing two vibrotactile actuators on different skin locations, they demonstrated that people could feel an illusory moving point between them.

This shows a person with neurons over their skin.

Featured Neuroscience

·August 23, 2023·6 min read

Skin Speaks: Directing Nerve Growth for Sensation

Researchers found that the skin, not pre-existing genetic programming, instructs nerve cells on how to mature for specific sensory tasks. The findings showcase that skin cues determine whether nerve endings develop to detect sensations in hairy or hairless skin.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·August 18, 2022·4 min read

Touch and Sight Are Linked Before Birth

During the embryonic stage, tactile information simultaneously activated the tactile and visual neural pathways. After birth, the pathways separate and reorganize to allow for individual processing of visual and tactile information.

This shows someone handing over a gift box

Featured Neuroscience

·April 7, 2022·3 min read

What Shaking a Container Can Teach Us About Touch

Study sheds light on the human ability to understand how an object moves inside a container, revealing how different kinds of information can be conveyed via the sense of touch.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·September 25, 2021·4 min read

How Tactile Vibrations Create Illusions

The brain does not reliably perceive the frequency of tactile vibrations when the amplitude is varied. Instead, the brain creates an illusion that highlights how far our perceptions of our environment can deviate from physical reality.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 21, 2021·4 min read

Sense of Touch Improves Control of Robotic Arm

Adding a BCI that evokes tactile sensations makes it easier for users to manipulate and use robotic arm prosthetics.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Visual Neuroscience

·October 23, 2018·4 min read

Philosophy of the Mind: In Touch with Reality

According to a new study, we trust our fingertips over our eye when it comes to processing ambiguous information.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 21, 2015·3 min read

Using Optogenetics to Switch Off Tactile Sensation

According to a new study, researchers use optogenetic technology to manipulate neural circuitry and leave mice unable to sense rough or smooth surfaces.