Tactile perception is the interpretation of skin sensations critical for spatial awareness, threat recognition, and fine motor activities. Researchers study the brain’s role in perception and sensory phenomena, while nerve damage can cause problems with perception. Ghost perceptions, such as phantom sensations in amputees, are also studied for treatment purposes.
Tactile perception is the interpretation of information provided by skin sensations. It is a complex connection from the nerves that supply the skin to the brain, where different areas of the brain correspond to specific sites on the skin. This information can be critical for spatial awareness, threat recognition, and fine motor activities. Researchers in this field work on experiments to learn more about the brain’s role in perception, develop and test hypotheses to explain specific sensory phenomena, and determine what happens when people lose sensation.
The sense of tactile perception begins to develop very early and matures as children interact with the world around them. Two areas of the body, the face and the hands, are particularly well supplied with nerves and provide the brain with considerable feedback on the surrounding environment. This is one reason babies and toddlers may grab items of interest to learn more. Objects can provide sensations of texture, temperature, and texture that offer insight into what they are and how they function.
Nerves can send a variety of signals about sensation in the environment to help the brain orient the body and interpret its surroundings. Tactile perception can also play a key role in safety. Specialized nerve endings known as nociceptors are specifically sensitized to pain and provide warnings about the experience of pain. These signals can speed up to allow the body to move to avoid a threat such as fire or a sharp object.
People can develop problems with tactical perception due to nerve or brain damage. Burn victims, for example, experience a loss of sensation at the burn site and may be unaware of painful sensations that provide important warnings. People with brain injuries may experience phantom sensations or may not interpret information correctly. Chronic pain conditions can also interfere with tactile perception and can make any sensation feel undesirable or painful.
Ghost perceptions are also a topic of interest to some tactile perception researchers. Striking examples can be seen in some amputees, who experience phantom sensations from the missing limb. These can include pain, but could involve other sensory experiences as well. Learning how this occurs can help healthcare professionals treat patients with such symptoms, sometimes through cognitive tricks like mirror therapy. In this tactic, the patient works with a mirror and the remaining limb to visually simulate movement of both limbs, which can override signals sent to the brain.
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