Touch

The Skin

Functions:
Provides tactile information.
Warns us of damaging stimuli.
Contains body fluids and
organs.
Protects against bacteria.
Regulates body temperature.
 Touch

Touch helps us identify objects and provides

unique information (e.g., texture)

Touch is important in development and social

interaction (e.g., Harlow’s monkeys).
The skin on the hand contains thousands of pressure-
sensitive mechanoreceptors.

Touch acuity is best when fingers move over the object

of interest.
 Measuring sensitivity and acuity of touch

Pressure sensitivity is greatest for fingertips and lips (the

lightest touch). The back is least sensitive to pressure.
Females more sensitive than males.

Vibrotactile sensitivity is greatest for palms. Females are

more sensitive than males.
 Measuring sensitivity and acuity of touch
Touch acuity (pattern acuity) is measured using the two-
point threshold test.

Tactile contrast sensitivity.

Linked to centre/surround receptive

fields in the thalamus.
Spatial frequency

Braille.
Neural Processing for Touch

Receptive field sizes of the

different mechanoreceptors
determines our ability to
discriminate fine details.

Sensitive body parts have

higher density of RA1 and
SA1 fibers.
Receptive Fields

Receptive fields in the

thalamus have centre-surround
organization.
Cortical receptive fields (left)
are smaller in the fingers and
larger on the hand and
forearm.
Neural Processing for Touch
Two-point threshold: the smallest discriminable
distance between two points
 Localization of tactile stimulation

Localization ability enables judgment of where

stimulus has been applied to the skin.

Tactile judgments of relative position are highly

accurate.
 Perception of surface texture
Surfaces have unique “texture signatures” (e.g., coarse vs.
fine).

Gratings of different spatial frequencies measure tactile

acuity.
 Tactile sensitivity (temperature)

Touch temperature is the perception of surface

temperature.

Objects differ in thermal conductivity.

Touch temperature is based on temperature gradient

between object and skin.
 Thermoreceptors

Located just below the skin.

Continuous nerve impulses at a certain temperature.

Small receptive fields (less than 1mm2).

There are spaces between receptive fields (“blind spots”).

Two classes: (1) cold receptors (2) warm receptors

Responds to CHANGES in temperature!!!!

Perceived temperature depends on the state of the receptors.

 Thermoreceptors
Warm Fibers:
- increased responding with
increasing temperature
- sustained firing
- decreased firing when
temperature decreases
- do not respond to mechanical
stimulation
Cold Fibers:
- increased responding with
decreasing temperature
- sustained firing
- decreased firing when
temperature increases
- do not respond to mechanical
stimulation
 Mental set and tactile sensitivity

Uncertainty makes tactile discrimination more difficult.

Advance information improves the identification of a

tactile stimulus.

Practice also improves tactile discrimination.

 Touch Fibers
Each nerve fiber signals touch to a specific area of the
skin (the fiber’s receptive field).
 Temporal properties

Slowly adapting (SA) fibers respond to initial stimulation and

continue responding (perception of light, uniform pressure).

Rapidly adapting (RA) fibers respond only to start and stop

points of stimulation (perception of buzzing vibration).
 Spatial properties

Punctate fibers have small receptive fields with sharply

defined boundaries.

Diffuse fibers have large receptive fields with fuzzy

boundaries.
The four-channel model: Mechanoreceptors
Spatial Property
Punctate Diffuse
Meissner Pacinian
Temporal Property

RA corpuscles corpuscles
(transient (very sensitive with
stimulation) large RFs)

Merkel Ruffini
SA disks endings
(steady pressure (steady pressure
of small object) and stretching)
 Properties of Mechanoreceptors

Frequency
Receptors Perception Fiber RF Size
Range

0.3-3 Hz Pressure SA1 Small

Merkel

3-40 Hz Flutter RA1 Small

Meissner

15-400 Hz Stretching SA2 Large

Ruffini

10-500 Hz Vibration RA2 Large

Pacinian
 Ascending pathways for touch

Reflex (OUCH!!!!)
Fibers (receptors) spinal cord

interneurons muscle

Sensory Analysis
Fibers (receptors) spinal cord
lemniscal neurons brainstem
 Somatosensory Cortex

Damage to somatosensory cortex destroys ability to

recognize objects by touch.
The body is mapped topographically onto somatosensory
cortex, but body parts are not represented equally.

Homoculus
Homunculi
 Tactile Object Recognition
Passive Touch vs. Active Touch

Haptic perception: exploration of 3D objects with the hand

Exploratory procedures (Lederman & Klatzky)
Exploratory Procedures

http://psyc.queensu.ca/~cheryl/labpage.html
 Visual and Haptic Object
Recognition
Haptic perception: involves coordination of motor,
sensory, and cognitive systems

Amedi, Jacobson, Hendler, Malach and Zohary (2002).

Cerebral Cortex, 12(11), 1202-1212
 Somatosensory Cortex

Certain cortical neurons respond selectively to

orientation and direction.
 Disorders related to somatosensory cortex

A person with unilateral neglect denies ownership of

limbs on one side of the body.

A person with a phantom limb experiences sensation

from a limb that no longer exists.
 Phantom Limbs
Amputees often report that they can still feel their
missing limb, and sometimes this is painful!

Referred sensation: stimulation of one part of the body results in

a sensation on another part of the body (i.e. the phantom limb).

The amount of functional

cortical reorganization is
positively correlated with
the degree of phantom
limb pain.

Flor, Elbert, Wienbruch, Pantev, Knecht, Birbaumer, Larbig & Taub (1995).
 Pain perception

Nociceptors respond to painful stimuli.

Two categories:
(1) mechanical receptor
- severe pressure on skin
- tearing

(2) thermal receptor

- responds to very high and very low
temperatures
 Pain

Nociceptors: receptors in
the skin that respond to
intense pressure, extreme
temperature, or burning
chemicals.

http://www.sfn.org/content/Publications/BrainBriefings/pain.html

The perception of pain can be modulated by cognitive factors:

expectation, placebo, shifting attention, emotional distraction,
individual differences
 Endorphins, Opiates and Pain
Relief

The “reward pathway” contains opioid receptors for exogenous and

endogenous substances.
- neurotransmitters (dopamine)
- opiate drugs (morphine, heroin, cocaine)
- endorphins
 Somatosensory cortex plasticity

Cortical reorganization occurs in monkeys when

fingers are surgically connected.

PET studies reveal differences in the brains of

musicians that suggest somatosensory cortical
changes occur in humans.
 Cortical Plasticity
String instrument players have larger representation in primary
sensory cortex for their left hands than normal controls.

The amount of cortical

magnification was correlated
with the age at which the person
began to play.

Elbert, Pantev, Wienbruch, Rockstroh & Taub (1995)

 Cross-Modal Plasticity
People who have been
blind from a very young
age show activity in
visual cortex during
Braille reading.
A TMS pulse to the
visual cortex impaired
Braille reading.
Evidence of functional
reorganization of the
brain!
Cohen, Celnik, Pascual-Leone, Corwell, Faiz, Dambrosia, Honda, Sadato, Gerloff, Catala & Hallett (1997).
 Summary
• The homuculus describes the amount of
cortex devoted to processing sensory and
motor information from the different parts
of the body.
• Haptic perception results from active touch
and exploratory hand movements.
• Haptic and visual object recognition share
an overlapping region in the ventral “what”
visual stream.
• Nociceptors provide information about
painful stimuli.
• Central neural mechanisms, such
as emotional state and drugs,
modulate our perception of pain.
• The somatosensory system can
undergo substantial reorganization
after intensive practice and injury.