Hannes P. Saal

Epidermal microstructure and tactile sensitivity in the glabrous skin of hands and feet

This study quantifies the structural features of glabrous skin and links them to tactile sensitivity using high-resolution imaging and psychophysical measurements.

Illusory cold desensitizes touch

The paper investigates how cold perception affects touch sensitivity using a thermal illusion and a computational model, finding that subjective cold perception modulates tactile detection thresholds.

Sub-surface deformation of individual fingerprint ridges during tactile interactions

This study investigates how individual fingerprint ridges deform during tactile interactions and finds that ridge flanks and their relative movement, rather than overall bending, are the primary sources of deformation and potential neural responses.

Can we tell where our bodies end and the world begins? Evidence for precise three dimensional internal body models

The paper assesses how accurately people perceive their body boundaries using a psychophysical task and 3D scans, revealing high precision but systematic biases in certain regions.

Memory at your fingertips: how viscoelasticity affects tactile neuron signaling

This study investigates how viscoelastic properties of human skin influence tactile neuron signaling during object manipulation, finding that neurons encode both current and past loading information.

Local postural changes elicit extensive and diverse skin stretch around joints, on the trunk, and the face

The paper investigates skin stretch patterns across body regions during movement, finding extensive and complex stretch that exceeds mechanoreceptive thresholds.

Biomechanical filtering supports efficient tactile encoding in the human hand

The paper shows biomechanical filtering in the hand enhances tactile encoding efficiency by modifying skin oscillations before neural responses.

Complexity of spatiotemporal plantar pressure patterns during everyday behaviours

This study analyzes spatiotemporal plantar pressure patterns during various daily activities, revealing spatial complexity and identifying key pressure components.

Similar somatotopy for active and passive digit representation in primary somatosensory cortex

This study shows that primary somatosensory cortex digit representation is consistent between active and passive tasks, with active tasks better at fine-grained discrimination.

Population coding strategies in human tactile afferents

This study investigates population coding strategies in human tactile afferents, finding that optimal density and composition depend on tactile features, and temporal information is more critical than spatial information.

Expansion and contraction of resource allocation in sensory bottlenecks

The paper uses linear models to show how sensory bottlenecks influence cortical resource allocation, finding that bottleneck width determines expansion or contraction of representations.

Malleability of the cortical hand map following a finger nerve block

This study examines cortical hand map changes after finger nerve block, finding persistent representation despite input loss, suggesting distributed processing and homeostatic mechanisms.

Modelling novelty detection in the thalamocortical loop

The paper develops a thalamocortical network model to explain novelty detection through synaptic depression in cortical layer 6 and thalamic oscillations, showing similarity to EEG-based mismatch negativity.

Tactile innervation densities across the whole body

The paper estimates tactile afferent fiber densities across the whole body using multiple methods and finds that the total number of tactile fibers is approximately 230,000 with regional variations.