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Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator TSPAS
Published on: July 30, 2020
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Touch perceptions across skin sites: differences between sensitivity, direction discrimination and pleasantness.
Rochelle Ackerley1, Ida Carlsson2, Henric Wester2
1Department of Physiology, University of Gothenburg Gothenburg, Sweden ; Clinical Neurophysiology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital Gothenburg, Sweden.
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
|March 7, 2014
Summary
Human skin
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Somatosensation
- Human Physiology
Background:
- Human skin possesses diverse tactile afferents with varying densities across body regions.
- Understanding the interplay between tactile pleasantness, sensitivity, and discrimination is crucial for somatosensory research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how tactile pleasantness, sensitivity, and discrimination vary across different human skin sites.
- To explore the relationship between stroking velocity and perceived pleasantness of touch.
- To determine correlations between tactile sensitivity, discrimination, and pleasantness across the body.
Main Methods:
- Tactile pleasantness was assessed by stroking skin with a soft brush at velocities of 0.3, 1, 3, 10, and 30 cm/s.
- Tactile sensitivity was measured using monofilament force detection.
- Tactile discrimination was evaluated through direction discrimination of a moving probe.
- Perceptions were recorded across five distinct skin sites: forehead, arm, palm, thigh, and shin.
Main Results:
- A preference for mid-range stroking velocities (1-10 cm/s) for pleasantness was observed across most skin sites, except the palm.
- The forehead and palm exhibited higher tactile sensitivity and discrimination acuity.
- While tactile sensitivity and discrimination correlated, neither related to the perceived pleasantness of touch.
- Hairy skin sites showed greater responsiveness to changes in stroking velocity for pleasantness ratings.
Conclusions:
- Perception of pleasant touch integrates somatosensory information from various mechanoreceptors and central processing, despite differing afferent physiology across skin sites.
- Tactile pleasantness preference for mid-range velocities is a general phenomenon, but regional variations exist, particularly on the palm.
- Tactile acuity (sensitivity and discrimination) is spatially dependent and distinct from pleasantness perception.
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