Touch
Touch comes before sight, before speech. It is the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth - Margaret Atwood, Der blinde Mörder
image by: J'Something
HWN Suggests
What’s the best sense?
In the realm of the senses, two reign supreme. Sight and hearing are rich and beloved, opulently served by the cultural forms we have devised for them – art, music, dance, theatre, poetry. They float serenely above taste and smell, two lesser nobles forever scrapping over the dominion of food. Taste has the edge there, so smell has been granted a magical little duchy of its own, where it presides in isolate splendour, mooning over old memories. Four smug monarchs, each ruling from a local seat of power, each passively receiving those emissaries from the outside, the impressions.
But touch is an eminence of a different order. It is the body’s democracy, active everywhere, sending…
Resources
Can We Touch?
Physical contact remains vital to health, even as we do less of it. The rules of engagement aren’t necessarily changing—they’re just starting to be heard.
Primal, Acute and Easily Duped: Our Sense of Touch
Imagine you’re in a dark room, running your fingers over a smooth surface in search of a single dot the size of this period. How high do you think the dot must be for your finger pads to feel it? A hundredth of an inch above background? A thousandth? Well, take a tip from the economy and keep downsizing. Scientists have determined that the human finger is so sensitive it can detect a surface bump just one micron high.
The pandemic made the world realise the importance of human contact
Touch is the only sense crucial to humans’ survival.
Why Our Sense of Touch Is a Marvel of the Animal Kingdom
Our next-level sense of touch is what separates us from the rest of the pack.
Good Vibrations
Haptic engineering is trying to bring a human touch back to our devices.
How do you feel? Your ‘sense of touch’ is several different senses rolled into one
We have more than five senses. What you might think of as your sense of “touch” is actually a range of different sensory pathways that allow you to distinguish various types of mechanical forces, to detect changes in temperature, and to feel pain.
Our amazing sense of touch, explained by a Nobel laureate
How do you feel — literally? Nobel laureate Ardem Patapoutian explains the tactile science of sensation.
The power of touch: is this the sense we’ve missed most?
Social distancing has reminded us what a crucial role touch plays in our wellbeing, says social and cultural historian Joe Moran.
Two scientists win Nobel Prize in medicine for how we sense temperature and touch
Two California-based scientists won the 2021 Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology on Monday for their discoveries of receptors for heat, cold, and touch.
What’s Your Most Important Memory of Touch?
Amid a pandemic that is profoundly decreasing skin-on-skin contact, the author asked people to share their most affecting tactile experiences.
How does human touch work?
Find out how the sense of touch tells humans about pressure and temperature.
Amazon Discovers The Human Touch
Despite all the talk today about sensory marketing strategies that appeal to shoppers via their other senses in addition to the visual, the sense of touch is the least appreciated. That’s a mistake.
How The Sense Of Touch Influences The Mind
Reporting in Science, researchers describe how the sense of touch influences the mind's judgments and decision-making processes. John Bargh, a professor of psychology and cognitive science at Yale, discusses the findings, including why sitting on a hard wooden chair may turn people into tougher negotiators.
Neuroscientists Hack Sense of Touch
By tweaking neural calcium levels, it's possible to crank up and down touch sensations.
Our Sense of Touch Is Even More Incredible Than We Thought
One researcher described it as the ability to distinguish between a house and a car, if you happen to have a fingertip the size of the Earth.
Study sheds light on role of fingerprints in sense of touch
Scientists looking at why human fingertips are so sensitive have found the culprit hiding in our prints.
The senses: Touch
Our skin contains millions of nerve endings and touch sensors. When our sensory system goes wrong, we can learn most how our senses help us understand the world around us.
Touch is the sense we understand the least – but maybe not for much longer
Yet despite the fundamental importance of our internal and external sense of touch, we don’t understand how it works very well. If we did there could be major health benefits on the internal side – and not only for people who have lost sensation.
What’s the best sense?
Deprived of sight, hearing, taste or smell, people soldier on and sometimes flourish, but being deprived of touch is nearly unimaginable.
9 surprising facts about the sense of touch
Touch is perhaps the most overlooked sense. Every one of us receives tactile information about the world around us every second of the day. Right now, if you're sitting, your butt is being squished into your chair. Your fingertips are probably touching a mouse, or swiping the glass of your phone.
Introducing Stitches!
Your Path to Meaningful Connections in the World of Health and Medicine
Connect, Collaborate, and Engage!
Coming Soon - Stitches, the innovative chat app from the creators of HWN. Join meaningful conversations on health and medical topics. Share text, images, and videos seamlessly. Connect directly within HWN's topic pages and articles.
