Definition
Active touch refers to the act of touching, and implies voluntary, self-generated movements. With active touch, the environment is explored using specialized touch organs (the hand or forepaw, whiskers in rodents) in order to gather information about the properties of surfaces (texture, hardness, temperature) and/or objects (size, shape, weight, location) located in the nearby peri-personal space. In contrast, passive touch, or the act of being touched, implies that the sensory input is generated by an external agent; this type of touch is not generally exploratory in nature (although there can be exceptions in the laboratory situation). For both modes of touch, the sensory input can be dynamic, implying movement between the skin and the object, or static (no movement). For example, a hand-held object can be identified using a combination of active exploratory movements, turning the object over to examine all of its surfaces (dynamic active touch), combined with periods of...
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Chapman, C.E. (2008). Active Touch. In: Binder, M.D., Hirokawa, N., Windhorst, U. (eds) Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_67
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_67
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