WHAT ARE TACTILE STIMULI? - SCIENCE - 2025

The tactile stimuli are all actions that are intended to generate sensations that can be experienced or perceived by touch.

The sense of touch allows living beings to perceive different alterations in the skin, such as temperature, humidity, texture, pressure, pain or pleasure.

Like stimuli directed at other senses such as sight or hearing, tactile stimuli make an organ react (in this case the skin), which perceives a change and alerts the brain.

Tactile stimuli in living beings

When the sense of touch is stimulated, a sensation is generated that is stored almost unconsciously by the brain in memory.

In the case of humans, this has represented an important factor at an evolutionary level, since through pain it is possible to perceive when an element (such as fire) is capable of causing damage to the body.

In areas such as sports, a tactile stimulus can be the trigger for quick decision-making in the middle of a game.

For example, pitchers in baseball use their fingers to feel the seams of the ball and thus make their pitches more precisely, despite not seeing the ball with their eyes.

The pain factor is also decisive in exercise; usually the limit of a person to test her strength, elasticity or athletic ability, is given by pain.

Emotional effect

The emotional effects caused by stimuli and tactile sensations have been the subject of numerous studies and are well known to people thanks to the general culture.

The face, neck, fingertips and other parts of the body are especially sensitive to the slightest variations in pressure. Tactile stimuli in these areas often have a very high and almost immediate emotional or physical response.

As an example for physical responses, we can name reflexes, which make the limbs jump if they are pressed at a specific point, and massages, which by applying pressure in a generalized way reduce the tension or cramping of the muscles.

Regarding the emotional responses produced by tactile stimuli, interactions such as kisses or hugs can generate the release of hormones such as endorphins and dopamine in the brain, responsible for generating pleasure.

Tactile stimuli generated by non-ordinary causes

Some chemicals have the ability to generate tactile stimuli in the brain despite the absence of skin contact with any object.

This is because sometimes psychoactive substances such as drugs or some poisons interfere with the sending of signals from nerve receptors to the brain.

Similarly, ethyl alcohol, cold, or anesthesia can cancel out tactile stimuli and make certain areas of the body numb for certain periods of time.

Capsaicin

This chemical compound present in spicy foods has an interesting effect, since it is capable of generating a false stimulus with respect to temperature.

Capsaicin has the ability to instantly activate temperature receptors located in the mucosa (especially in the mouth), so that when eating spicy foods the brain literally thinks that the mouth is burning.

References

1. Information on Tactile Stimulus (sf). Retrieved on November 13, 2017, from Beroring.
2. Ford Ebner, Jon Kaas (2015). Somatosensory System. Retrieved on November 13, 2017, from ScienceDirect.
3. Tactile Stimulation (sf). Retrieved on November 13, 2017, from Especial Needs.
4. Sarah Sincero (July 2, 2013). Skin Senses: Touch. Retrieved on November 13, 2017, from Explorable.
5. The sense of touch: its function and parts (July 28, 2017). Retrieved on November 13, 2017, from El Popular.
6. Capsaicin (nd). Retrieved on November 13, 2017, from the National Center for Biotechnology Information.