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Tactile Senses

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Comprehensive Human Physiology

Abstract

In this chapter we will deal with tactile senses originating in mechanoreceptors of the skin. The skin is the largest organ in the body, accounting for about 16% of its weight [1] and, as an interface between the body’s inside and outside, exerts a number of functions, including sensation mediated by a variety of sensory organs. Touch is probably the phylogenetically oldest sense and, up to the most developed species, of immense significance for physical and psychic wellbeing. Newborns, in particular, suffer tremendously from deprivation of touch contact with other human beings, not only the mother. They are retarded in growth, physical and psychic development. During deprivation, their heart rate, body temperature, brainwave and sleep patterns and immune responses are changed [1]. Touch also plays a major role in sexual life and, hence, reproduction. Its importance in human life has been engrained in language in an enormous number of idioms and proverbs [1].

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  1. U. Windhorst
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  1. Physiologisches Institut, Universität Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Str. 7, 79104, Freiburg, Germany

    Rainer Greger

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive N.W., T2N 4N1, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Uwe Windhorst

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Windhorst, U. (1996). Tactile Senses. In: Greger, R., Windhorst, U. (eds) Comprehensive Human Physiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60946-6_33

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