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.

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...

Depth Perception and Spatial Vision

Depth Perception and Spatial Vision

Depth perception is the ability to perceive objects three-dimensionally. It relies on two types of cues: binocular and monocular. Binocular cues depend on the combination of images from both eyes and how the eyes work together. Since the eyes are in slightly different positions, each eye captures a slightly different image. This disparity between images, known as binocular disparity, helps the brain interpret depth. When the brain compares these images, it determines the distance to an object.

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

How thin is too thin? Evidence from visual aftereffects in body size estimation.

Psychological research·2026

Same author

Precise tactile localization on tools in two dimensions.

iScience·2026

Same author

Embodying the other using the sixth finger illusion.

Cognition·2026

Same author

Is there handedness for tactile acuity? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Laterality·2026

Same author

Automatic integration of emotion from faces and hands.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026

Same author

Therapeutic HIV-1 Tat vaccination promotes durable immune reconstitution and reservoir reduction in ART-treated adults with clade C infection: a 12-year follow-up study.

Frontiers in immunology·2026

Same journal

Exploring the interactions between external support, internal psychological factors, and digital teaching competence: Evidence from a PLS-SEM model in Chinese rural teachers.

Acta psychologica·2026

Same journal

Heterogeneity in moderation effects: How willingness-to-pay shapes the knowledge-behavior relationship in sustainable fashion consumption.

Acta psychologica·2026

Same journal

Impact of early environmental unpredictability on impulsive consumption: Insights from life history theory.

Acta psychologica·2026

Same journal

Pre-service foreign language teachers' acceptance of ChatGPT in microteaching lesson planning: A sequential mixed-methods study.

Acta psychologica·2026

Same journal

AI-driven adaptive feedback and EFL writing performance: The roles of engagement, metacognition, and epistemic agency in a cross-linguistic context.

Acta psychologica·2026

Same journal

Crawling into a hole: Attachment insecurity, shame, and hikikomori symptoms in an adolescent population.

Acta psychologica·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 6, 2026

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

Implicit body representations and tactile spatial remapping.

Matthew R Longo¹, Flavia Mancini², Patrick Haggard³

¹Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London.

Acta Psychologica

|July 22, 2015

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Tactile spatial remapping combines skin touch location with body position sense. Our study shows remapping uses body position sense distortions, not skin touch distortions, indicating a shared hand representation for both processes.

Keywords:

Body representation Proprioception Somatosensory Tactile remapping Touch

More Related Videos

Observing the Transformation of Bodily Self-consciousness in the Squeeze-machine Experiment

Observing the Transformation of Bodily Self-consciousness in the Squeeze-machine Experiment

Published on: March 8, 2019

Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency

Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency

Published on: October 28, 2020

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Apr 6, 2026

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

Observing the Transformation of Bodily Self-consciousness in the Squeeze-machine Experiment

Observing the Transformation of Bodily Self-consciousness in the Squeeze-machine Experiment

Published on: March 8, 2019

Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency

Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency

Published on: October 28, 2020

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Perception Psychology
Somatosensation

Background:

External tactile localization integrates skin-based touch location with body part position sense, a process termed tactile spatial remapping.
Both component processes rely on implicit, distorted body representations, with distinct distortions observed for position sense and tactile localization on the skin.
Understanding these distortions is key to understanding the underlying neural mechanisms of spatial awareness.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the role of implicit body representation in tactile spatial remapping.
To determine if distortions characteristic of position sense and tactile localization on the skin are present in tactile spatial remapping.
To elucidate the commonalities and differences in body representations underlying these perceptual processes.

Main Methods:

Participants performed tactile spatial remapping tasks involving the hand.
Behavioral data were analyzed to identify distortions in external tactile localization.
These distortions were compared to known distortions in position sense and tactile localization on the skin.

Main Results:

Tactile spatial remapping exhibited significant distortions characteristic of position sense, such as overestimating distances across the hand.
Distortions typically seen in tactile localization on the skin, like biases towards the knuckles, were not observed in tactile spatial remapping.
These findings suggest a shared implicit body representation for position sense and external tactile localization.

Conclusions:

Tactile spatial remapping is primarily influenced by the implicit body representation used for position sense.
The findings imply that tactile spatial remapping does not necessitate a body-part-centered reference frame.
A unified, distorted body representation underlies both position sense and the external spatial localization of touch.