News tagged with sense of touch
Why Do We Have Fingerprints?
(PhysOrg.com) -- Unlike most wrinkles on our bodies, which appear due to bending and stretching of the skin, fingerprints aren't the result of repeated motion. Each of us is born with a unique set of them, ...
Apr 04, 2009 |
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Virtual reality you can touch (w/ Video)
Researchers at the Computer Vision Lab at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, have developed a method with which they can produce virtual copies of real objects. The copies can be touched and even sent via the Internet. ...
Technology / Computer Sciences
Aug 19, 2010 |
4.5 / 5 (13) |
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Virtual reality you can reach out and touch
A team of European researchers has "virtually" teleported real objects through cyberspace, touched things in virtual reality and even felt the movements of a virtual dance partner.
Technology / Computer Sciences
Jul 01, 2010 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
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Experience shapes the brain's circuitry throughout adulthood
The adult brain, long considered to be fixed in its wiring, is in fact remarkably dynamic. Neuroscientists once thought that the brain's wiring was fixed early in life, during a critical period beyond which changes were impossible. ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Jun 15, 2010 |
4.6 / 5 (10) |
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Touch: How a hard chair creates a hard heart
(PhysOrg.com) -- Through textures, shapes, weights and temperatures, the sense of touch influences both our thoughts and behavior. In a series of six experiments documented in the June 25 issue of the journal ...
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Jun 24, 2010 |
4 / 5 (11) |
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Small Fingers More Touch Sensitive
When it comes to finger sensitivity, bigger isn't always better.
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Dec 16, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (5) |
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Researchers studying hearing loss find auditory regions of the brain convert to the sense of touch
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers have discovered that adult animals with hearing loss actually re-route the sense of touch into the hearing parts of the brain.
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Mar 24, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
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Snail Braille reader could read books to the blind
(PhysOrg.com) -- To most of us, Braille is largely a mystery. It feels really cool, but the idea of actually reading it is kind of a pipe dream. Our sense of touch simply is not as sensitive as that of a blind ...
Technology / Hi Tech & Innovation
May 06, 2011 |
2.8 / 5 (6) |
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Researchers suggests that bacteria communicate by touch
What if bacteria could talk to each other? What if they had a sense of touch? A new study by researchers at UC Santa Barbara suggests both, and theorizes that such cells may, in fact, need to communicate in ...
Mar 01, 2012 |
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A bit touchy: Plants' insect defenses activated by touch
A new study by Rice University scientists reveals that plants can use the sense of touch to fight off fungal infections and insects. The study, which will be published in the April 24 issue of Current Biology, finds ...
Apr 09, 2012 |
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Touch helps make the connection between sight and hearing
The sense of touch allows us to make a better connection between sight and hearing and therefore helps adults to learn to read. This is what has been shown by the team of Édouard Gentaz, CNRS researcher at the Laboratoire ...
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Mar 19, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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Underwater robot with a sense of touch
(PhysOrg.com) -- Maintenance of offshore drilling rigs or underwater cables, taking samples of sediment - underwater robots perform a variety of deep-sea tasks. Research scientists now aim to equip robots ...
May 04, 2009 |
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Brain's object recognition system activated by touch alone
Portions of the brain that activate when people view pictures of objects compared to scrambled images can also be activated by touch alone, confirms a new report published online on May 28th in Current Biology.
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
May 28, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Virtual maps for the blind
The blind and visually impaired often rely on others to provide cues and information on navigating through their environments. The problem with this method is that it doesn't give them the tools to venture out on their own, ...
Sep 10, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Artificial 'muscles' may pump up touch-screen typing
Any high schooler sneaking a text message in class can confirm that fingering the right buttons on a cell phone is a cinch, even if it's hidden in your pocket. But how about on a glass touch screen?
Technology / Hi Tech & Innovation
Apr 07, 2010 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Somatosensory system
The somatosensory system is a diverse sensory system comprising the receptors and processing centres to produce the sensory modalities such as touch, temperature, proprioception (body position), and nociception (pain). The sensory receptors cover the skin and epithelia, skeletal muscles, bones and joints, internal organs, and the cardiovascular system. While touch is considered one of the five traditional senses, the impression of touch is formed from several modalities; In medicine, the colloquial term touch is usually replaced with somatic senses to better reflect the variety of mechanisms involved.
The system reacts to diverse stimuli using different receptors: thermoreceptors, mechanoreceptors and chemoreceptors. Transmission of information from the receptors passes via sensory nerves through tracts in the spinal cord and into the brain. Processing primarily occurs in the primary somatosensory area in the parietal lobe of the cerebral cortex.
At its simplest, the system works when a sensory neuron is triggered by a specific stimulus such as heat; this neuron passes to an area in the brain uniquely attributed to that area on the body—this allows the processed stimulus to be felt at the correct location. The mapping of the body surfaces in the brain is called a homunculus and is essential in the creation of a body image.
For more information about Somatosensory system, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
