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Somatosensation

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The somatosensory system relays sensory information from the skin, mucous membranes, limbs, and joints. Somatosensation is more familiarly known as the sense of touch. A typical somatosensory pathway includes three types of long neurons: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary neurons have cell bodies located near the spinal cord in groups of neurons called dorsal root ganglia. The sensory neurons of ganglia innervate designated areas of skin called dermatomes.

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Tactile senses encompass touch, temperature, and pain, each mediated by specific receptors. Touch receptors detect mechanical energy or pressure against the skin. Sensory fibers from these receptors enter the spinal cord and relay information to the brain stem. Here, most fibers cross over to the opposite side of the brain. The touch information then moves to the thalamus, which projects a map of the body's surface onto the somatosensory areas of the parietal lobes in the cerebral cortex. This...

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The somatosensory system is the central and peripheral nervous system component that senses and processes touch, pressure, pain, temperature, and body position or proprioception. The process of sensation takes place at three levels:
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Related Experiment Video

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Applying Incongruent Visual-Tactile Stimuli during Object Transfer with Vibro-Tactile Feedback

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Published on: May 23, 2019

Predicted sensory feedback derived from motor commands does not improve haptic sensitivity.

Alessandra Sciutti¹, Valentina Squeri, Monica Gori

¹Department of Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Italian Institute of Technology, Via Morego 30, 16163 Genoa, Italy. alessandra.sciutti@iit.it

Experimental Brain Research

|September 5, 2009

Summary

Predicted sensory feedback (PSF) does not improve haptic perception precision. Studies show that haptic acuity relies on afferent signals, not efference copy, during active touch exploration.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Haptics
Perception

Background:

Haptic perception integrates proprioceptive and tactile signals.
Predicted sensory feedback (PSF), from motor commands, is a potential information source in active touch.
The role of PSF in perception remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effect of PSF on haptic precision.
To determine if PSF enhances or aids haptic perception.
To compare haptic acuity with and without PSF.

Main Methods:

Blindfolded subjects explored virtual object contours using a robotic manipulandum.
Active exploration (with PSF) and passive exploration (without PSF) conditions were compared.
Detection and discrimination thresholds for object curvature were measured.

Main Results:

Absence of efference copy information (PSF) did not systematically degrade haptic acuity.
Haptic precision remained consistent across active and passive conditions.
PSF did not show a significant effect on perceptual estimates.

Conclusions:

Haptic perception precision relies primarily on afferent tactile and proprioceptive information.
PSF does not appear to enhance haptic sensitivity or acuity.
The perceptual system prioritizes afferent signals for exploring novel objects.