When designing neuroprosthetic devices for users to control with their thoughts, engineers must take into account the sensory information brains collect from the environment and how it gets processed.
It’s intriguing how some people experience ASMR while others don’t - our latest research suggests that many ASMR responders are highly sensitive “orchids”.
Apple reportedly has policies designed to encourage consumers to touch its products.
AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
Nobel prizewinning research has revealed the various molecules that help us sense temperature, touch, pain, and even the positioning of our body parts.
David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian are this year’s winners.
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These discoveries could help us treat a variety of conditions in the future – including chronic pain.
Not being able to hold and hug loved ones has been one of the more difficult parts of the pandemic.
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Lack of human touch can lead to greater stress, anxiety and loneliness – and that is what made the social distancing during the pandemic so hard for many.
When we lie down, our brains rely more on touch and pressure to figure out our surroundings.
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Learning that our brains process information differently when we’re standing up or lying down has implications for how we study and assess brain function.
A sculpture of two saints meeting and embracing embodies the importance of touch in Renaissance culture as a form of devotion and ultimately a way to access the divine.
(Renaissance Polychrome Sculpture in Tuscany database)
After a year of pandemic social distancing, we know touch is a much-desired privilege. In the Italian Renaissance, people longed to touch not only each other, but also religious sculptures.
Our sense of touch is important for creating and maintaining social bonds.
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The loss of the simple act of hugging has taken a big emotional toll for many people during the pandemic.
In healthy older people, loneliness has a pattern of stress response similar to that of people who are under chronic stress.
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The social isolation older adults are experiencing as they try to stay safe from the coronavirus pandemic is raising new mental health risks, but people can take steps to protect themselves.
Touch is central to empathy because the person being touched is also touching back.
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A give-and-take between patient and provider is essential to patient care. As the COVID-19 pandemic ushers in a new era of medicine, one doctor wonders if this connection will be lost.