Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Somatosensation

Somatosensation

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.

Tactile and Chemical Senses

Tactile and Chemical Senses

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...

Design Example: Resistive Touchscreen

Design Example: Resistive Touchscreen

A device engineer plays a crucial role in designing user interfaces for mobile devices. One such interface is the resistive touchscreen, which fundamentally consists of two metallic layers: a flexible upper layer and a rigid lower layer, separated by a narrow gap. The high resistance between these two layers is a key characteristic of this design.
When a user touches the screen, the two layers make contact at a specific point known as the touchpoint. This contact reduces the resistance between...

Gestalt Principles of Perception

Gestalt Principles of Perception

Gestalt principles provide a framework for understanding how humans perceive objects as unified wholes within their context. These principles are essential in explaining the cognitive processes that make sense of complex visual stimuli by organizing them into coherent groups. One fundamental principle is proximity, which posits that objects located close to each other are perceived as a collective group. For instance, when dots are positioned near one another, the visual system interprets them...

Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System

Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System

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:
The receptor level:
The receptor level is the first stage of sensation. It involves the detection of a stimulus by specialized sensory receptors. The stimulus must arrive within the receptor's receptive field. Next, the receptor converts the energy of the stimulus...

Responses to Gravity and Touch

Responses to Gravity and Touch

Gravitropism: Plant Responses to Gravity

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

When in Doubt, Touch Is More Convincing Than Vision.

Multisensory research·2026

Same author

An Illusion of Tactile Slip.

Multisensory research·2025

Same author

Dynamic shaping of multi-touch stimuli by programmable acoustic metamaterial.

Nature communications·2025

Same author

Brain network for small-scale features in active touch.

Neuroimage. Reports·2025

Same author

Optimized Sandwich and Topological Structures for Enhanced Haptic Transparency.

IEEE transactions on haptics·2024

Same author

Mediated and non-mediated tactile fingerspelling: a comparative study.

Assistive technology : the official journal of RESNA·2024

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator (TSPAS)

Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator (TSPAS)

Published on: July 30, 2020

Perception of simulated local shapes using active and passive touch.

Allan M Smith¹, C Elaine Chapman, François Donati

¹Département de Physiologie, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. allan.smith@umontreal.ca

Journal of Neurophysiology

|October 16, 2009

Summary

Active versus passive touch perception was compared using a force-feedback device. Passive touch with vertical displacement improved shape perception, while lateral force perception was impaired without motor feedback.

More Related Videos

A Tactile Automated Passive-Finger Stimulator (TAPS)

A Tactile Automated Passive-Finger Stimulator (TAPS)

Published on: June 3, 2009

Visualization Method for Proprioceptive Drift on a 2D Plane Using Support Vector Machine

Visualization Method for Proprioceptive Drift on a 2D Plane Using Support Vector Machine

Published on: October 27, 2016

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator (TSPAS)

Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator (TSPAS)

Published on: July 30, 2020

A Tactile Automated Passive-Finger Stimulator (TAPS)

A Tactile Automated Passive-Finger Stimulator (TAPS)

Published on: June 3, 2009

Visualization Method for Proprioceptive Drift on a 2D Plane Using Support Vector Machine

Visualization Method for Proprioceptive Drift on a 2D Plane Using Support Vector Machine

Published on: October 27, 2016

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Haptics
Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

Active and passive touch are fundamental modes of sensory exploration.
Understanding their perceptual equivalence is crucial for fields like robotics and virtual reality.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the perceptual differences between active and passive tactile exploration.
To determine the role of motor command feedback in tactile shape perception.

Main Methods:

A force-feedback device simulated Gaussian ridges and troughs.
Subjects actively explored shapes, and recorded data was replayed for passive exploration.
Digital nerve block anesthesia was used to assess the role of skin sensation.

Main Results:

Passive touch with vertical displacement led to lower categorization thresholds and higher magnitude estimates compared to active touch.
Passive touch with lateral force fields hindered shape categorization (convex vs. concave).
Anesthesia significantly increased categorization thresholds for lateral force fields but not displacement fields.

Conclusions:

Motor command feedback plays a significant role in processing sensory input during tactile exploration, particularly for lateral force-based stimuli.
Skin sensation is critical for perceiving shapes defined by lateral forces, but less so for those defined by vertical displacements.