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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.

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...

Vision

Vision

Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.

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...

Responses to Gravity and Touch

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Thermosensation

Thermosensation

Peripheral thermosensation is the perception of external temperature. A change in temperature (on the surface of the skin and other tissues) is detected by a family of temperature-sensitive ion channels called Transient Receptor Potential, or TRP, receptors. These receptors are located on free nerve endings. Those detecting cold temperatures are closer to the surface of the skin than the nerve endings detecting warmth. These thermoTRP channels, while temperature selective, have relatively...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 2, 2026

Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior

Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior

Published on: November 14, 2018

Perceived touch location is coded using a gaze signal.

Lisa M Pritchett¹, Laurence R Harris

¹Department of Psychology & Centre for Vision Research, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada. lmpritch@yorku.ca

Experimental Brain Research

|May 12, 2011

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

The brain uses both head and eye position to determine where a touch is felt, integrating tactile information into a visual reference frame. This visual-tactile integration is crucial for accurately perceiving touch location during movement.

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Last Updated: Jun 2, 2026

Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior

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Published on: November 14, 2018

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Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator (TSPAS)

Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator (TSPAS)

Published on: July 30, 2020

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Sensory Integration
Perception

Background:

Tactile information is initially processed in body coordinates but must be transformed into retinotopic coordinates for visual-tactile integration.
Accurate transformation requires accounting for eye and head position, though previous studies suggest imperfect signals are used.
Understanding this body-to-visual coordinate transformation is key to explaining how we perceive touch location in a dynamic environment.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the combined influence of head and eye position on the perceived location of a tactile stimulus on the arm.
To determine if head and eye position contribute equally to the transformation of tactile signals into a visual reference frame.

Main Methods:

Participants reported the perceived location of a mechanical touch stimulus applied to their arm.
Stimuli were presented while participants positioned their head and eyes in various combinations (left, center, right).
The perceived tactile location was analyzed in relation to the independent positions of the head and eyes.

Main Results:

The perceived location of the touch shifted systematically with changes in both head and eye position.
These shifts occurred in the direction of both head and eye movement, with approximately equal magnitudes.
This suggests that both head and eye position signals are actively used in the coordinate transformation process.

Conclusions:

Tactile locations appear to be coded within a visual reference frame, utilizing gaze signals for accurate spatial perception.
The brain integrates head and eye position information to update the perceived location of touch, facilitating seamless visual-tactile integration.
These findings support a model where gaze direction plays a critical role in transforming somatosensory information into a viewer-centered coordinate system.