News tagged with sense of touch
How our sense of touch is a lot like the way we hear
(Medical Xpress)—When you walk into a darkened room, your first instinct is to feel around for a light switch. You slide your hand along the wall, feeling the transition from the doorframe to the painted ...
Neuroscience
Dec 11, 2012 |
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Deaf brain processes touch differently, study shows
People who are born deaf process the sense of touch differently than people who are born with normal hearing, according to research funded by the National Institutes of Health. The finding reveals how the ...
Neuroscience
Jul 10, 2012 |
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Researchers identify protein required to regrow injured nerves in limbs
A protein required to regrow injured peripheral nerves has been identified by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Neuroscience
Jun 20, 2012 |
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Monkeys feel, move virtual objects using only their brains (w/ video)
(Medical Xpress) -- In a first ever demonstration of a two-way interaction between a primate brain and a virtual body, two monkeys trained at the Duke University Center for Neuroengineering learned to employ ...
Neuroscience
Oct 05, 2011 |
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Sense of touch reproduced through prosthetic hand
In a study recently published in IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, neurobiologists at the University of Chicago show how an organism can sense a tactile stimulus, in real time, through an art ...
Neuroscience
May 10, 2013 |
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Scientists show how nerve wiring self-destructs
Many medical issues affect nerves, from injuries in car accidents and side effects of chemotherapy to glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. The common theme in these scenarios is destruction of nerve axons, the ...
Neuroscience
May 09, 2013 |
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Gene mutation leads to impairment of 2 senses: Touch and hearing
People with good hearing also have a keen sense of touch; people with impaired hearing generally have an impaired sense of touch. Extensive data supporting this hypothesis was presented by Dr. Henning Frenzel and Professor ...
Genetics
May 01, 2012 |
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Research explores common visual error of 'boundary extension'
(Medical Xpress) -- Helene Intraub, professor of psychology at the University of Delaware, and then-undergraduate researcher Mike Richardson first published their paper on the phenomenon of "boundary extension" ...
Psychology & Psychiatry
Mar 09, 2012 |
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'Feeling' sound: The sense of hearing and touch may have evolved together
Lying in bed at night, one of the worst sounds a person can hear is the buzz of a nearby mosquito. Concentrating on the buzzing might keep you from falling asleep, but it also seems to heighten the awareness ...
Neuroscience
Jun 02, 2011 |
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Practice, not loss of sight, improves sense of touch in the blind: study
New research from McMaster University may answer a controversial question: do the blind have a better sense of touch because the brain compensates for vision loss or because of heavy reliance on their fingertips?
Neuroscience
May 11, 2011 |
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Feeling strong emotions makes peoples' brains 'tick together'
Experiencing strong emotions synchronises brain activity across individuals, research team at Aalto University and Turku PET Centre in Finland has revealed.
Psychology & Psychiatry
May 24, 2012 |
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Scientists find new pieces of hearing puzzle
Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have gained important new insights into how our sense of hearing works. Their findings promise new avenues for scientists to understand ...
Medical research
May 08, 2012 |
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The 'disinhibited' brain
The Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), also known as Morbus Sudeck, is characterised by "disinhibition" of various sensory and motor areas in the brain. A multidisciplinary Bochum-based research group, led by Prof. Dr. ...
Neuroscience
Sep 21, 2011 |
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Specific modules for robot-assisted surgery debuts
Two life-sciences entrepreneurs are launching the first procedure-specific software modules for robot-assisted surgery.
Other
May 13, 2011 |
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Virtual reality and robotics in neurosurgery—promise and challenges
Robotic technologies have the potential to help neurosurgeons perform precise, technically demanding operations, together with virtual reality environments to help them navigate through the brain, according to a special supplement ...
Surgery
Dec 20, 2012 |
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Somatosensory system
The somatosensory system is a diverse sensory system comprising the receptors and processing centres to produce the sensory modalities such as touch, temperature, proprioception (body position), and nociception (pain). The sensory receptors cover the skin and epithelia, skeletal muscles, bones and joints, internal organs, and the cardiovascular system. While touch is considered one of the five traditional senses, the impression of touch is formed from several modalities; In medicine, the colloquial term touch is usually replaced with somatic senses to better reflect the variety of mechanisms involved.
The system reacts to diverse stimuli using different receptors: thermoreceptors, mechanoreceptors and chemoreceptors. Transmission of information from the receptors passes via sensory nerves through tracts in the spinal cord and into the brain. Processing primarily occurs in the primary somatosensory area in the parietal lobe of the cerebral cortex.
At its simplest, the system works when a sensory neuron is triggered by a specific stimulus such as heat; this neuron passes to an area in the brain uniquely attributed to that area on the body—this allows the processed stimulus to be felt at the correct location. The mapping of the body surfaces in the brain is called a homunculus and is essential in the creation of a body image.
For more information about Somatosensory system, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
