Tactile and Sensory Interactions

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.

Semantic representations in the visual cortex of blind and sighted humans

The paper shows that blind and sighted humans' visual cortex represents semantic dimensions related to word referents' physical properties during word processing, suggesting shared representational mechanisms.

The brain dynamics of congenitally blind people seeing faces and letters via sound

This study uses EEG to show that visual cortices are the earliest site of face and letter sensitivity when conveyed via sensory substitution devices in congenitally blind individuals.

A specialized inhibitory function sharpens somatosensory hand representation and enhances the production and perception of fast multifinger movements in pianists

This study shows that expert pianists have enhanced inhibitory function in the somatosensory cortex, improving their ability to process and execute fast multifinger movements.

Is cultural context the crucial touch? Neurophysiological and self-reported responses to affective touch in women in South Africa and the United Kingdom.

This study compares subjective and neurophysiological responses to affective touch between women in South Africa and the United Kingdom, finding cultural differences in touch perception and neural processing.

Development and assessment of a new multichannel electrocutaneous device for non-invasive somatosensory stimulation for magnetic resonance applications

This paper develops and tests a multichannel electrocutaneous device for non-invasive somatosensory stimulation during fMRI, confirming its safety and ability to elicit expected brain activity.

Predictions of bimanual self-touch determine the temporal tuning of somatosensory perception

The paper shows that perceived touch intensity decreases during hand reaching movements toward self-touch and recovers afterward, highlighting the role of motor predictions in somatosensory perception.

Tactile Imagery Affects Cortical Responses to Vibrotactile Stimulation of the Fingertip

This paper investigates how tactile imagery affects cortical responses to vibrotactile stimulation, finding that it modulates EEG patterns and enhances cortical processing of real tactile stimuli.

Shaping the developing homunculus: the roles of deprivation and compensatory behaviour in sensory remapping

This study investigates neuroplasticity in children and adults with congenital limb differences, showing early global remapping in the somatosensory cortex driven by deprivation and compensatory behavior.

Extending tactile space with hand-held tools: A re-analysis and review

The paper reanalyzes behavioral experiments on tool-extended tactile localization to estimate parameters mapping sensory input to spatial perception, finding near-perfect localization accuracy.

Emergence of a somatosensory tonotopic map for substrate vibration in the brainstem

This study identifies structured frequency and location maps in the dorsal column nuclei, showing their relationship and emergence through dendritic sampling of axonal afferents.

Tactile Sensitivity to the Frequency Spectrum of Complex Vibrotactile Signals

The study investigates how the frequency spectrum of complex vibrotactile signals affects human perception, finding that missing low-frequency tones are more detectable than higher ones.

Tactile Mechanisms and Afferents Underlying the Rat Pup Transport Response

The paper investigates the sensory mechanisms and afferents involved in the rat pup transport response, identifying anterior neck grasping and loss of ground contact as triggers for calming and postural adjustments.

Touch to text: Spatiotemporal evolution of braille letter representations in blind readers

This study investigates the spatiotemporal evolution of braille letter representations in blind and sighted readers using MEG and pattern analysis, finding slower processing and a transformation from peripheral to high-level representations in blind individuals.

Alternatives to Friction Coefficient: Fine Touch Perception Correlates with Frictional Instabilities

This study shows that human fine touch perception correlates with frictional instabilities rather than traditional friction metrics like coefficients or roughness.

Spatial arrangement of the whiskers of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) compared to whisker arrangements of mice (Mus musculus) and rats (Rattus norvegicus)

The paper quantifies the 3D geometry of harbor seal whiskers and compares it with mice and rats, finding shared structural patterns across species.

Encoding of vibrotactile stimuli by mechanoreceptors in rodent glabrous skin

This study investigates the coding properties of low-threshold mechanoreceptors in rodent glabrous skin, showing their heterogeneity and how they encode vibrotactile stimuli through rate and temporal coding.

Reconcile sensory attenuation and enhancement: The temporal dynamics of self-generated sensory feedback

This study investigates the temporal dynamics of self-generated sensory feedback, showing early attenuation followed by later enhancement in perceptual processing.

Tactile Stimulation Designs Adapted to Clinical Settings Result in Reliable fMRI-based Somatosensory Digit Maps

This study evaluates two fMRI-based digit mapping designs for clinical use, showing both produce reliable activation locations but less consistent extent and overlap across sessions.

Embodied processing in whisker somatosensory cortex during exploratory behaviour in freely moving mice

This study shows that whisker somatosensory cortex in mice encodes body state during exploratory behavior, integrating sensory and motor signals into an embodied representation.

Sensory adaptation in the barrel cortex during active sensation in the awake, behaving mouse

This study shows sensory adaptation occurs during active whisker sensing in awake mice, driven by both motor and sensory encoding effects.

Ipsilateral stimulation shows somatotopy of thumb and shoulder auricular points on the left primary somatosensory cortex using high-density fNIRS

This study uses fNIRS to show that thumb and shoulder auricular points activate specific regions in the left primary somatosensory cortex, supporting somatotopy.

Decoupling Coldness and Softness in Tactile Wetness Perception Using Tunable Hydrogels

This study decouples thermal and mechanical cues in tactile wetness perception using tunable hydrogels and develops a predictive model with 90% accuracy.

Brain encoding of naturalistic, continuous, and unpredictable tactile events

This paper demonstrates using EEG to measure neural tracking of continuous, unpredictable tactile events, showing reliable TRF after 3 minutes and digit lateralization.

Trigeminal innervation and tactile responses in mouse tongue

This study investigates the neural basis of mechanosensation in the mouse tongue, identifying Piezo2+ trigeminal neurons and distinct mechanoreceptor types in lingual papillae.

Training interoceptive awareness with real-time haptic vs. visual heartbeat feedback

This study compares real-time haptic and visual heartbeat feedback to enhance interoceptive awareness, finding haptic feedback improves accuracy, confidence, and user satisfaction.

Coding of self and environment by Pacinian neurons in freely moving animals

This study records low-threshold mechanoreceptors in freely moving mice and finds that Pacinian neurons encode both self-initiated movements and distant environmental vibrations.

Touch inhibits cold: non-contact cooling reveals a novel thermotactile gating mechanism

This study shows that touch inhibits cold perception by using a non-contact cooling method and finding reduced sensitivity to cooling when touch is present.

Transformation of neural coding for vibrotactile stimuli along the ascending somatosensory pathway

This study investigates how vibrotactile stimuli are encoded along the ascending somatosensory pathway in mice, revealing a transformation from temporal to rate coding in the thalamus.

Longitudinal stability of individual brain plasticity patterns in blindness

The paper shows that individual patterns of visual cortex reorganization in blindness are stable over two years and can be used to decode participant identity.