10 Articles About The Neuroscience of Touch
/The Neuroscience of Touch
The skin is the body's largest organ. It affects everything from our social interactions to temperature regulation, and immune defense. This is because it is home to a wide variety of sensory nerves that provide us with information about the environment around us. The peripheral sensory system can detect gentle touch, pain, itch, temperature, and proprioception. In addition to the physical responses to touch, the psychological affective responses can not be overstated.
Research into neuroscience of touch is coming out at an ever increasing rate. Some of the articles listed below demonstrate and describe the mechanism of touch-induced analgesia, likely to be mediated by a subcortical gating of the ascending nociceptive input, which in turn results in a modulation of cortical responses. Some of the article also investigate the role that therapeutic touch has on both both the physical and psychological aspects of pain.
When talking about touch mechanoreceptors are what informs the body about the type of touch they are receiving, there are five major types of mechanoreceptors have been identified in skin:
• Two of these are located in the superficial layers of the skin: Merkel cells and Meissner corpuscles.
• Two receptors, the Pacinian corpuscle and the Ruffini ending, are found in the subcutaneous and deeper tissue layers.
• The fifth major type of mechanoreceptor responds to stroking of the hairy skin, this is know as C-tactile afferents.
Layers of the skin - Madhero88 - CC 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14546548L
10 Articles About The Importance of Touch
Socioculturally appropriate touch has been shown to stimulate the release of neurochemicals (neurotransmitters and neuropeptides) associated with a sense of comfort, well-being, relaxation and pain relief. Whether you are a therapists interested in the nervous system or you simply are looking for reading materials for continuing education credits, here is a list of ten open access articles about touch and the nervous system.
Abraira, V. E., & Ginty, D. D. (2013). The sensory neurons of touch. Neuron, 79(4), 618–639. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2013.07.051
Cascio, C. J., Moore, D., & McGlone, F. (2019). Social touch and human development. Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 35, 5–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2018.04.009
Case, L. K., Liljencrantz, J., McCall, M. V., Bradson, M., Necaise, A., Tubbs, J., Olausson, H., Wang, B., & Bushnell, M. C. (2021). Pleasant Deep Pressure: Expanding the Social Touch Hypothesis. Neuroscience, 464, 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.07.050
Chen, W. G., Schloesser, D., Arensdorf, A. M., Simmons, J. M., Cui, C., Valentino, R., Gnadt, J. W., Nielsen, L., Hillaire-Clarke, C. S., Spruance, V., Horowitz, T. S., Vallejo, Y. F., & Langevin, H. M. (2021). The Emerging Science of Interoception: Sensing, Integrating, Interpreting, and Regulating Signals within the Self. Trends in neurosciences, 44(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2020.10.007
Ferreira, B. R., Aguirre, C. C., Rapoport-Hubschman, N., Adewuya, A. O., Canchy, L., Morizet, D., Vincenzi, F., & McGlone, F. P. (2023). The skin-brain connection and pleasant touch as supportive care for psychocutaneous disorders. Skin health and disease, 4(1), e310. https://doi.org/10.1002/ski2.310
Fotopoulou, A., von Mohr, M., & Krahé, C. (2022). Affective regulation through touch: homeostatic and allostatic mechanisms. Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 43, 80–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2021.08.008
Lowy, D. B., Makker, P. G. S., & Moalem-Taylor, G. (2021). Cutaneous Neuroimmune Interactions in Peripheral Neuropathic Pain States. Frontiers in immunology, 12, 660203. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.660203
Lloyd, D. M., McGlone, F. P., & Yosipovitch, G. (2015). Somatosensory pleasure circuit: from skin to brain and back. Experimental dermatology, 24(5), 321–324. https://doi.org/10.1111/exd.12639
Moehring, F., Halder, P., Seal, R. P., & Stucky, C. L. (2018). Uncovering the Cells and Circuits of Touch in Normal and Pathological Settings. Neuron, 100(2), 349–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.10.019
Packheiser, J., Hartmann, H., Fredriksen, K., Gazzola, V., Keysers, C., & Michon, F. (2024). A systematic review and multivariate meta-analysis of the physical and mental health benefits of touch interventions. Nature human behaviour, 10.1038/s41562-024-01841-8. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01841-8
Photo Credit - Jörg Bittner Unna - CC BY 3.0
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”