Scholarpedia of Touch

Abstract

Scholarpedia's Encyclopedia of Touch provides a comprehensive collection of peer-reviewed articles written by leading researchers, detailing our current scientific understanding of tactile sensing and its neural substrates in animals including humans. The encyclopedia allows ideas and insights to be shared between researchers working on different aspects of touch and in different species, including research in synthetic touch systems. In addition, this encyclopedia raises awareness of research in tactile sensing and increases scientific and public interest in the field. The articles address subjects including tactile control, whiskered robots, vibrissal coding, the molecular basis of touch, invertebrate mechanoreception, fingertip transducers and tactile sensing. All the articles in this encyclopedia provide in-depth and state-of-the-art scholarly treatment of the academic topics concerned, making it an excellent reference work for academics, professionals and students. Preface; Scope and Structure; Acknowledgments; Contents; Contributors and Curators of Scholarpedia; Reviewers of Scholarpedia of Touch; 1 Introduction: The World of Touch; Touch in Invertebrates; The Evolutionary Origins of Touch; Lower Invertebrate Model Systems; Tactile Learning in Molluscs; The Arthropod Tactile Hair; The Arthropod Antenna: Elaborate Touch in Invertebrates; Touch in Vertebrates; The Lateral Line System of Fish and Amphibians; Evolutionary Origins of Mammalian Hair and Skin; Mechanosensation in Monotremes; Mammalian Vibrissal Systems. The Refined Vibrissal Sense of Aquatic MammalsActive Sensing Strategies and the Unusual Case of the Star-Nosed Mole; Varieties of Human Touch Sensing; Discriminative Touch as a Self-structuring Sensorimotor Activity; The Gentler Side of Touch: Affect, Sociality and Sensuality; Synthetic Touch for Haptic Interfaces, Robots, Prostheses and Virtual Worlds; Internal References; External References; Part I Comparative Touch; 2 Cockroach Antennae; Cockroach Antenna as a Tactile Sense Organ; Sensory System; Hair Sensillum; Campaniform Sensillum; Chordotonal Sensillum; Hair Plate; Motor System. Antennal Muscles and Their InnervationOutput Pattern; Central System; Mechanosensory Center; Motor Center; Interneurons; Behavior; Anemotactic Behavior; Evasive Behavior; Wall-Following; Obstacle Negotiation Behavior; Tactile Orientation; Electrostatic Field Detection; Internal References; External References; External Links; 3 Stick Insect Antennae; Antennae Are Active Near-Range Sensors; Antennae Are Dedicated Sensory Limbs; Four Adaptations Improve Tactile Efficiency; Matching Lengths of Antennae and Front Legs; Coordinated Movement of Antennae and Legs; Non-orthogonal, Slanted Joint Axes. Special Biomechanical PropertiesThere Are Specialised Sensors for Pointing Direction, Contact Site, Bending, Vibration, and More; Pointing Direction (Hair Fields); Contact Site (Tactile Hairs); Bending (Campaniform Sensilla); Vibration (Johnston's Organ); Internal References; External References; 4 A Spider's Tactile Hairs; The Exoskeleton and Its Sensors; Mechano-Sensitive Hair Sensilla; Types of Morphology and Arrangement; Proprioreceptive versus Exteroreceptive; Well Matched Micromechanics; Hair Shaft or Outer Lever Arm; Inner Lever Arm and Dendrites; Directionality. Physiological Responses of Sensory CellBehavioral Roles; Internal References; External References; 5 Tactile Sensing in the Octopus; Sense Organs in the Skin; Training Experiments; Taste by Touch; Learning to Make Skilled Movements; References; Recommended Readings; 6 Tactile Sensing in the Naked Mole Rat; Naked Mole-Rat Sensory World; Somatosensation; Skin; Teeth; Brain Structures Involved in Sensation and Perception; Computational Properties of Somatosensory Function; References; 7 Vibrissal Behavior and Function; Cross-Species Comparisons of Vibrissal Touch.