Touch's Diverse Qualities

Sensitivity and Acuity of Touch

  Localization of Tactile Stimulation

  Perception of Surface Texture by Touch

  Reading with the Fingertips

  Perception of Surface Temperature

  Mental Set and Tactile Sensitivity

Physiology of Touch

  Touch Fibers

    Temporal Properties

    Spatial Properties

    Four Fiber Groups

  Fiber Activity and the Experiences

  Neural Responses and Perceptual Judgments Evoked by Tactile Stimulation

  Touch Qualities Evoked by Nerve Stimulation

  Receptors for Touch

    Meissner Corpuscles

    Merkel Disks

    Ruffini Endings

    Pacinian Corpuscles

    Free Nerve Endings

  Ascending Pathway for Touch

  Somatosensory Cortex

    Arrangement of Major Cortical Divisions

  Cortical Representation of Body Surface

    Cortical Magnification

    Cortical Maps

  Speculations About Cortical Organization

Active Touch: Haptics

  Phantom Limb

Pain Perception

  Neural Pathways for Pain Signals

  The Gate Control Theory of Pain

Plasticity in the Somatosensory Cortex

  Origins of Plasticity

  Plasticity in the Human Brain

Some Possible Clinical Applications