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Haptic
Tactition
iPod touch
Touchscreens
Haptics
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Somatic sensation consists of the various sensory receptors that trigger the
experiences labelled as touch or pressure, temperature (warm or cold), pain
(including itch and tickle), and the sensations of muscle movement and joint
position including posture, movement, and facial expression (collectively also
called proprioception).
A more complex concept comes into play when the term is used in reference to
human beings. The sense of touch is mediated by the somatosensory system. Touch
may be considered one of five human senses; however, when a person touches
something or somebody this gives rise to various feelings: the perception of
pressure (hence shape, softness, texture, vibration, etc.), relative temperature
and sometimes pain. Thus the term "touch" is actually the combined term for
several senses. In medicine, the colloquial term "touch" is usually replaced
with somatic senses, to better reflect the variety of mechanisms involved.
The somatosenses include: Cutaneous (skin), kinesthesia (movement) and visceral
(internal) senses, of which the first two are better known. Visceral senses have
to do with sensory information from within the body, such as stomach aches.
Anatomy
Human brain localization
The somatosensory system consists of ascending pathways from the body to the
postcentral gyrus in the cerebral cortex, namely the Dorsal Column Medial
Lemniscal pathway, the Ventral Spinothalamic pathway, ventral and dorsal
spinocerebellar tracts.
The primary somatosensory area in the human cor
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