Touch

Touch: how we perceive the world through the skin

Touch is one of the main types of sensations that help us navigate the world around us. The sense of touch allows us to determine not only the presence of an object, but also its shape, size, temperature, humidity and the nature of the surface. It consists of a whole complex of signals entering the brain from nerve endings located in muscles, joints, on the surface of the skin and mucous membranes. These receptors perceive touch and pressure, temperature and pain, changes in body position in space, etc.

Most animals have a more developed sense of touch than humans, and they rely on it to guide their behavior. For example, a spider learns that a fly has entered its web by perceiving the vibration that occurs when the fly moves. Marine animals living at great depths, where eternal darkness reigns, living underground, learn about the approach of an enemy or prey with the help of highly sensitive antennas, long whiskers, tentacles and other organs of touch.

In humans, a particularly acute sense of touch is found around the mouth and mucous membrane of the lips. With age, due to work activity, the sense of touch becomes significantly stronger at the tips of the fingers, due to which the ability to perceive the quality of objects by touch is acquired. Information about the ambient temperature is perceived by special nerve endings - thermoreceptors. A necessary condition for normal muscle activity is to receive signals about the position of the body in space and the degree of contraction of each muscle. Signals of this kind come from receptors in muscles and joints and are perceived by a person in the form of a “muscle feeling”. Moving in a familiar environment, a person confidently and accurately makes any movements, avoiding obstacles.

However, the assessment of the distance to objects is developed not only with the help of the “muscular sense”, but also with the obligatory participation of vision. For people deprived of vision, the sense of touch plays a leading role in understanding the world around them. Using the sense of touch, the blind are able to perform very delicate and complex work. The sense of touch reaches a particularly high degree of development in people deprived of both sight and hearing. Special training for such people in speech, writing, and work skills is based on improving their tactile abilities.

A violation of the sense of touch is expressed in its complete or partial loss, which is associated with damage to the central nervous system. Often people experience increased sensitivity of certain areas of the skin to touch. Increased skin sensitivity may be a consequence of diseases of a number of internal organs. This connection helps doctors diagnose and treat a range of internal diseases by targeting sensitive areas of the skin through superficial massage and other treatments.

The sense of touch is an integral part of our perception of the world around us, and its importance cannot be overestimated. It helps us navigate space, perceive the quality of objects by touch, perform delicate work and receive information about temperature and other physical properties of the environment. It is important to take care of your skin's health and keep its sensitivity at an optimal level to get the most out of this amazing feeling.

The sensation of touch is one of our main senses. With its help, we are the first to learn about the world around us. Without the sense of touch, how would we know what the texture of the asphalt is under our feet, how hot the tea is to the touch, or who has been given the ear to sleep on?

Touch is a sensation caused by the touching of one object to another. Through touch we feel the boundaries, lines, shapes, structure and properties of different surfaces. Some people have tactics