In a study published in today's Scientific Reports, the researchers report that humans can perceive miniscule changes in surfaces—down to a microscopic 13 nanometers, about the width of a human hair.
When your finger rubs against another surface, tiny pressure sensors embedded within your fingers, called Pacinian corpuscles, perceive the texture.
These sensors also pick up vibrations, and the closer the vibrations are formed to these sensor areas, the stronger their sensitivity.
Vibrations felt by these pressure sensors add up to particular frequencies that the brain translates into our surprisingly fine sense of touch.
At Urban Dictionary, references to the word "touch" seem widely conflicted.
touch:
Grace & style. Deriving the greatest amount of benefit from the least amount of effort. Dedication to quality, not flash. That which elevates an action artistically, and separates a performance from that of a technically proficient caveman. (73 up, 55 down)
touched:
A person thats not quite right in the head or insane is touched, the word should be said whilst pointing towards the head. (169 up, 72 down)
22 comments:
"Vibrations felt by these pressure sensors add up to particular frequencies that the brain translates into our surprisingly fine sense of touch."
I always like it when the brain translates things.
"Vibrations felt by these pressure sensors add up to particular frequencies that the brain translates into our surprisingly fine sense of touch."
Our own built-in Fourier transformer.
They say the most horrifying place in the hospital is the burn ward.
I have no reason to doubt that.
So does this mean the blind get more out of braille than us sighted get out of reading by eye?
Touché, ricpic
Thanks, Pollo. Frankly, I thought it was a kinda silly comment but went ahead anyway. MitchBat, on the other hand, made such a serious comment that I figure he must be having one of those days. Best to just let it play out. But if his next comment is serious too I'll have to come in with a reprimand. ;^)
"Let Your Fingers Do the Seeing"
That can lead you to trouble ...
I wonder who they used as test subjects for this experiment and how different the result might be if they used people who "work with their hands" who often have very calloused fingertips as opposed to those whose heaviest work load might be typing on a keyboard.
Manual workers not only have callouses from work but also chemical abuse. Take a look at the hands of a cement worker or auto mechanic. I know that when I was playing the guitar a lot, my left hand fingertips had very little feeling.
Nevertheless....very interesting study.
Quick – name the five senses.
Most people readily list sight, taste, hearing, and smell. And then pause before remembering: touch.
Touch is the Ringo Starr of the Five senses.
Medusa at a nude beach is good.
Lem, you have a sixth sense for perceiving such connections.
rhhardin said...
Medusa at a nude beach is good.
I find the context religious.
... you have a sixth sense
Pretty Sneaky Cheeky.
Medusa at a Nude Beach
Kerry and Jane Fonda were closer that previously thought.
Its been years since anyone's touched me like that!
It is amazing the discomfort the smallest little splinter can cause in a foot. Sometimes you have to use a magnifying lens just to see it, but once it's out - such relief!
I sometimes close my eyes when I am working on something with my hands because I can "see' it better. Especially if it is out of sight.
Cuts down the irrelevant visuals, I guess.
People have varying degrees of sensitivity with touch (duh). Sometimes I "feel" with my hands in such a way that it involves my arms. For instance, driving. We drive older cars and often I feel though my hands and arms on the steering wheel that something has changed, although hubby cannot. (And I am right.) I sometimes run my hands over my dishes and bowls and pick up nearly invisible bits that haven't been cleaned off.
Wonder if they tried to correlate this with dexterity (fine motor, gross motor). Maybe I'll read it and see. ;-)
My daughter did her thesis in college for psychology on touch. I'll forward the article.
@JAL/
One of the reasons many "old school" airline pilots do not like the "fly-by-wire" electronic flight controls in the newer aircraft is the resultant total lack of sensory feedback the old direct hydraulic/pneumatic systems gave one through the steering yoke.
@MTB/
My wife opened the first burn unit in Louisiana @the old New Orleans Charity Hospital in 1973 after getting her specialty in burns in SoCal @ County Hosp in LA. I've been in those wards--not for the faint of heart. The avg burn-unit nurse lasts only approx six months before they "burn out" (sorry, no other way to describe it) from the intensity of it all..
In reality, nothing ever touches anything. Instead you are feeling electrostatic repulsion or Coulomb repulsion of electrons in your fingers or skin reacting to electrons on the surface you are touching. The closer you get the more forceful the repulsion. A good example of this is a baseball interacting with a baseball bat, but touch is an excellent example of this as well because 99% of all reactions in the universe are electron reaction occur on the surfaces of everything.
When I first learned of this when I was kid it was one of those, mind-is-blown kind of things, but the way it translates to what we think we 'feel' is even more interesting. Is touch different across species, do they perceive touch differently than we do? It's all so fascinating.
sydney said...
It is amazing the discomfort the smallest little splinter can cause in a foot. Sometimes you have to use a magnifying lens just to see it, but once it's out - such relief!
That's how leftism is. It's like a tiny splinter in the body politic. It causes nothing but irritation and pain. It must be removed for relief.
Also, some of you know that I have synesthasia and because of that I can 'see' through my fingers.
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