Article
Neurosciences
Susannah C. Walker, Antonia Cavieres, Valentin Penaloza-Sancho, Wael El-Deredy, Francis P. McGlone, Alexies Dagnino-Subiabre
Summary: Affiliative tactile interactions can mitigate the neurobiological and behavioral effects of stress in social mammals. Specific tactile stimulation can reduce stress hormone levels and anxiety-like behaviors. However, the impact of tactile stimulation on depressive-like behaviors is also influenced by social interaction.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Larissa L. Meijer, Zoe A. Schielen, Kim Y. van Ree, H. Chris Dijkerman
Summary: The study found that affective touch has a relieving effect on electrically induced itch, with the alleviation starting after 2 minutes of stroking and continuing to increase up to 6 minutes.
FRONTIERS IN MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Biology
Antonio Cataldo, Nobuhiro Hagura, Yousef Hyder, Patrick Haggard
Summary: Human perception of touch is influenced by inputs from multiple channels. Contrary to classical theories, it was found that inputs from two sub-modalities of mechanical input channels interact to determine tactile perception. Sustained mechanical pressure was shown to inhibit tingling sensations induced by a bioactive compound, without mediation from nociceptive or affective channels.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Review
Neurosciences
Chang Yin, Eric Peterman, Jeffrey P Rasmussen, Jay Z. Parrish
Summary: Recent research shows that epidermal signals play a crucial role in determining the patterns of somatosensory neuron innervation in the skin through various mechanisms, including targeting afferents to the epidermis, providing instructive cues for branching morphogenesis, and facilitating interactions between neurites.
FRONTIERS IN CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Luke E. Miller, Cecile Fabio, Malika Azaroual, Dollyane Muret, Robert J. van Beers, Alessandro Farne, W. Pieter Medendorp
Summary: This study proposes that the somatosensory system may implement multilateration to decode touch location on the body by estimating the relative distance between afferent input and body part boundaries. A simple feed forward neural network was shown to be able to implement this computation, and the computational signature of multilateration was identified in psychophysical experiments.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Biology
Srinivas Chivukula, Carey Y. Zhang, Tyson Aflalo, Matiar Jafari, Kelsie Pejsa, Nader Pouratian, Richard A. Andersen
Summary: The study found evidence of touch encoding in the human posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and its cognitive engagement during a tactile imagery task, possibly reflecting semantic processing, attention, sensory anticipation, or imagined touch.
Article
Psychology, Experimental
Annett Schirmer, Man Hey Chiu, Ilona Croy
Summary: The study reveals that different touch actions have unique somatosensory topographies, as well as distinct differences in emotional context, comfort, and frequency. Therefore, affectionate touch actions are not redundant, but highly differentiated in terms of somatosensory and socioaffective processes.
Article
Anatomy & Morphology
W. Schellekens, M. Thio, S. Badde, J. Winawer, N. Ramsey, N. Petridou
Summary: This study investigated the functional hierarchy of cyto-architectonically distinct regions in human S1, finding that pRF sizes increase from lower-order areas to higher-order areas and that the hemodynamic response peak in BA3 is earlier compared to BA1 and BA2. These results suggest a functional hierarchy of subregions in S1, with different mechanoreceptors feeding into the same cortical hierarchy.
BRAIN STRUCTURE & FUNCTION
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Maria Pyasik, Irene Ronga, Dalila Burin, Adriana Salatino, Pietro Sarasso, Francesca Garbarini, Raffaella Ricci, Lorenzo Pia
Summary: Studies have shown that sensory attenuation triggered by the own hand and by the embodied fake hand have similar behavioral and neurophysiological signatures, indicating that body ownership plays a crucial role in distinguishing the source of perceived sensations.
Article
Neurosciences
Roger Holmes Watkins, Mario Durao de Carvalho Amante, Helena Backlund Wasling, Johan Wessberg, Rochelle Ackerley
Summary: This study reveals the specific role of SA-II mechanoreceptive afferents in touch perception, showing that they can rapidly and precisely transmit tactile sensations, which is significant for computational models and artificial prosthetic feedback.
JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-LONDON
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Alan J. Emanuel, Brendan P. Lehnert, Stefano Panzeri, Christopher D. Harvey, David D. Ginty
Summary: Research shows that signals from physiologically distinct mechanoreceptor subtypes are extensively integrated and transformed within the subcortical somatosensory system to generate cortical representations of touch.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Elena Amoruso, Devin B. Terhune, Maria Kromm, Stephen Kirker, Dollyane Muret, Tamar R. Makin
Summary: Studies have shown that amputees and individuals with congenital one-handers can perceive facial touch as arising from their phantom hand, but this perception is not necessarily related to cortical plasticity. This study investigated the influence of demand characteristics on referred sensations reports, and found that the stimulation methods and frequency of referred sensations were similar in amputees and control groups.
Article
Optics
Xi Zhang, Zitong Feng, David Marpaung, Eric Numkam Fokoua, Hesham Sakr, John Richard Hayes, Francesco Poletti, David John Richardson, Radan Slavik
Summary: Analogue signal transmission is preferred in many applications due to lower cost or superior performance. However, the performance of long analogue photonics links using standard single-mode fibres (SSMF) is limited by impairments such as stimulated Brillouin scattering, chromatic dispersion, and Kerr nonlinearity. This study proposes using hollow-core optical fibres to address these shortcomings and demonstrates significant improvements in performance compared to SSMF links.
LIGHT-SCIENCE & APPLICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
B. Pan, D. Zhu, M. Zhang
Summary: This paper introduces a flexible thermal sensor that can be used on robotic fingers to achieve rapid measurement of thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity for different materials. By a single touch of the robot finger, the thermal properties of an object can be measured in less than 2 seconds.
SENSORS AND ACTUATORS A-PHYSICAL
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Sonja Meiser, Jana Marie Sleeboom, Ihor Arkhypchuk, Kevin Sandbote, Jutta Kretzberg
Summary: Mechanosensory cells in the leech, specifically T cells at soma locations T2 and T3, exhibit variability in excitability due to potential reasons including time-dependent changes in excitability, synaptic input from the network, and anatomical differences. While both T2 and T3 cells increased their excitability over time, T2 cells generated more spikes with shorter latency and larger amplitudes compared to T3 cells. The anatomical difference between the two locations is that T2 cells innervated two roots while 50% of T3 cells had only one root process. These findings suggest that a combination of factors contribute to the observed variability and systematic differences in excitability.
FRONTIERS IN CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Review
Neurosciences
Sarah McIntyre, Saad S. Nagi, Francis McGlone, Hakan Olausson
Summary: With age, there are changes in the perception and structure of the touch system, such as reduced skin elasticity, decreased numbers of skin tactile receptors, and demyelination of the nervous system. Despite attempts to find a direct link between perceptual and structural changes, it remains elusive.
Article
Neurosciences
Line S. Loken, Helena Backlund Wasling, Hakan Olausson, Francis McGlone, Johan Wessberg
Summary: Unmyelinated tactile (CT) afferents are abundant in hairy skin of the arm, and relatively sparse in the lower leg compared with C-nociceptors. They have similar physiological properties across different nerves. Moreover, they do not respond to the cooling agent menthol or the pruritogen histamine.
JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Rebecca Boehme, Hakan Olausson
Summary: The human brain is able to predict and attenuate the sensory outcomes of one's own actions through efference copies, although the sensory percepts of self-touch are not fully cancelled out. Self-touch has behavioral relevance, helping individuals to refocus attention, calm down, relieve stress, and enjoy themselves.
CURRENT OPINION IN BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Rochelle Ackerley
Summary: C-tactile (CT) afferents are low-threshold mechanoreceptors found in human skin, believed to convey positive and pleasant touch sensations through gentle contact. They are highly sensitive to small displacements of the skin and show some thermal sensitivity as well.
CURRENT OPINION IN BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Rochelle Ackerley, Leonard Samain-Aupic, Edith Ribot-Ciscar
Summary: In this study, the effects of passive movement training on proprioceptive acuity and peripheral proprioceptive afferent signal were investigated. The results showed that proprioceptive acuity improved only in the cued group in the psychophysical experiment, and muscle afferent firing underwent modulation in the microneurography experiment after training.
Article
Neurosciences
Roger Holmes Watkins, Mario Durao de Carvalho Amante, Helena Backlund Wasling, Johan Wessberg, Rochelle Ackerley
Summary: This study reveals the specific role of SA-II mechanoreceptive afferents in touch perception, showing that they can rapidly and precisely transmit tactile sensations, which is significant for computational models and artificial prosthetic feedback.
JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-LONDON
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Anne Margarette S. Maallo, Basil Duvernoy, Hakan Olausson, Sarah McIntyre
Summary: This article discusses the challenges in touch neuroscience research and compares it to vision science. The lack of naturalistic stimuli, especially in social touch research, has hindered progress. However, new methods and recent successes offer hope for overcoming these obstacles.
CURRENT OPINION IN NEUROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Gerben B. Ruesink, Francis P. McGlone, Hakan Olausson, Camilla de Jong, Jan-Bernard Marsman, Remco J. Renken, Janniko R. Georgiadis
Summary: Current understanding of human genital-brain interactions primarily focuses on neuroendocrine and autonomic control, with limited exploration of interactions during sexual stimulation. This study presents a systematic approach to identify how the human brain encodes sensory genital information using a validated affective touch paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging. It reveals distinct hedonic responses to discriminatory versus affective tactile stimulation for both penile shaft and forearm, suggesting the presence of small diameter mechanoreceptive nerve fibers that signal pleasant touch in genital skin. The study also highlights the involvement of the secondary somatosensory cortex and the default-mode network in processing genital stimulation and subjective pleasure.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Physiology
Shan Xu, Chang Xu, Sarah McIntyre, Hakan Olausson, Gregory J. Gerling
Summary: This article introduces an interference-free 3D visual tracking system using a depth camera to measure the contact attributes between the bare hand of a toucher and the forearm of a receiver. The system is able to decompose the spatiotemporal changes of hand-to-forearm contact into contact attributes and identify different social messages and gestures based on these attributes. Experimental results demonstrate the spatiotemporal accuracy of the system.
FRONTIERS IN PHYSIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Sarah McIntyre, Steven C. Hauser, Aniko Kusztor, Rebecca Boehme, Athanasia Moungou, Peder Mortvedt Isager, Lina Homman, Giovanni Novembre, Saad S. Nagi, Ali Israr, Ellen A. Lumpkin, Freddy Abnousi, Gregory J. Gerling, Hakan Olausson
Summary: This study explores the role played by specific physical features in interpersonal touch communication. The results show that within close relationships, receivers can identify the intuitive touch expressions of the senders, and we successfully quantified the physical features of touch associated with effective communication.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Lisa Radman, Andrew Wold, Kerstin Norman, Hakan Olausson, Magnus Thordstein
Summary: Electrical accidents result in long-term damage to hand function, and there are currently no recommendations or assessment tools available to evaluate these effects. A study was conducted on 24 patients with self-reported neurosensory symptoms 1 to 5 years after an electrical accident, and compared with 24 healthy controls. The study found that patients had significantly impaired hand function.
JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Andrew Wold, Lisa Radman, Kerstin Norman, Hakan Olausson, Magnus Thordstein
Summary: This study used clinical neurophysiological techniques to assess neurosensory function in patients after workplace electrical accidents and correlated test results with symptoms. The results showed that a majority of patients had neurosensory impairments, with a weak correlation between test results and self-reported symptoms.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Leonard Samain-Aupic, Laura Gilbert, Nathalie Andre, Rochelle Ackerley, Edith Ribot-Ciscar, Jean-Marc Aimonetti
Summary: Tactile sensitivity decreases with aging, but the application of a perfumed oil can improve both tactile sensitivity and skin properties. In a study with females aged 40-60 years, the perfumed oil group showed improved tactile detection thresholds and spatial discrimination, along with increased expression of olfactory receptor OR2A4 and elastic fiber length. These findings suggest that perfumed oil may repair and prevent age-related tactile decline by improving skin condition.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Neuroimaging
Morgan Frost-Karlsson, Andrea Johansson Capusan, Irene Perini, Hakan Olausson, Maria Zetterqvist, Per A. Gustafsson, Rebecca Boehme
Summary: This study compared the brain activity of participants with anorexia nervosa, autism spectrum condition, and a comparison group without diagnoses during a self-other-touch task. The results showed that participants with anorexia nervosa had increased neural activity in response to both self-touch and social touch, while participants with autism spectrum condition were mostly comparable to the comparison group. This suggests that there may be differences in body perception and self-other-distinction between anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum condition.
NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Cybernetics
Shan Xu, Chang Xu, Sarah McIntyre, Hakan Olausson, Gregory J. Gerling
Summary: This study investigates how subtle differences in skin-to-skin contact affect the recognition and rating of emotional messages. The results show that touchers vary contact attributes to convey distinct messages, which can be recognized by receivers. These nuances in touch are also correlated with receivers' emotional arousal and valence.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON HAPTICS
(2022)