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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.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 11, 2025

Using Facial Electromyography to Assess Facial Muscle Reactions to Experienced and Observed Affective Touch in Humans

Using Facial Electromyography to Assess Facial Muscle Reactions to Experienced and Observed Affective Touch in Humans

Published on: March 15, 2019

MDMA modulates human sensorimotor cortical pathways during gentle touch.

Hanna Molla¹, Giovanni Novembre², Anya Bershad³

¹Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Chicago, IL, United States.

Imaging Neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)

|August 13, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

The stimulant 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) enhances the pleasantness of touch by influencing early somatosensory pathways. This study used fMRI to observe brain activity and found increased affective ratings and oxytocin levels with MDMA.

Keywords:

MDMA affective touch fMRI oxytocin social social touch

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Last Updated: Sep 11, 2025

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Psychopharmacology
Somatosensory research

Background:

3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is known to increase the pleasantness of tactile sensations.
The neural mechanisms behind MDMA's effects on touch perception remain largely uncharacterized.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the neural correlates of MDMA's influence on affective touch perception.
To examine the role of oxytocin in mediating these effects.

Main Methods:

A double-blind, randomized, within-subject design was employed with 18 healthy participants.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measured brain activity during gentle touch stimulation at different speeds (3 cm/s and 30 cm/s) after MDMA or placebo administration.
Plasma oxytocin levels were measured.

Main Results:

Participants reported higher affective ratings for touch during the MDMA session compared to placebo.
Increased plasma oxytocin levels were observed with MDMA.
fMRI data revealed greater hemodynamic changes in primary sensorimotor areas during MDMA, suggesting an early influence on somatosensory processing.
Oxytocin levels interacted with MDMA in the occipitotemporal region MT+, associated with motion perception.

Conclusions:

MDMA modulates affective touch perception through early somatosensory pathway alterations.
Oxytocin may play a role in the interaction between MDMA, touch perception, and motion processing.
Further research is needed to fully elucidate the neural basis of MDMA's effects on tactile experience.