Previous studies showed that CTs are abundant in hairy skin and are thought to code gentle, stroking touch that signals positive affective interactions. CTs have never been described in human glabrous skin, yet. Watkins and colleagues showed the first evidence of their existence on the non-hairy skin of the hand, albeit at a relatively low density. The authors suggest that CTs in the glabrous skin may provide modulatory reinforcement of gentle tactile interactions during touch using the hands. Time to update all our papers in preparation!

Read the article:
Watkins RH, Dione M, Ackerley R, Backlund Wasling H, Wessberg J, Loken LS (2021). Evidence for sparse C-tactile afferent innervation of glabrous human hand skin. Journal of Neurophysiology, 125(1): 232-237.