Category: Research Digest

  • The insula is necessary for the perception of tactile pleasantness

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    by

    Laura Crucianelli
    in

    Kirsch and colleagues report the first human lesion study on the perception of C-tactile touch in right hemisphere stroke patients (N = 59). The results show that lesions in the right posterior and anterior insula reduce tactile, contralateral and ipsilateral pleasantness sensitivity, respectively. These findings provide important insight into the areas involved in the central…

  • Why do hugs feel so good?

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    by

    Laura Crucianelli
    in

    The social touch hypothesis proposes that C-tactile fibers form a privileged pathway underlying social touch. The pleasantness percept has long been related to a slow, caress-like touch. Here, Case and colleagues propose that deep pressure constitutes another important form of social touch. Their results suggest that the brain activity recorded during deep pressure is comparable…

  • C-tactile afferents finally show up on non-hairy skin!

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    by

    Laura Crucianelli
    in

    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…

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