Skin Senses: Touch • Physical stimuli = pressure, warmth, cold, and pain. These combine to form all the different sensations your skin feels. • “Wetness” is actually a combination of pressure and cold. • Pain receptors called nociceptors • Temperature receptors called thermoreceptors Touch Perception of touch is not just receptor stimulation, though. A touch feels like a tickle if someone else does it. Context makes a difference. Expected vs. unexpected touch will feel different. Rubber Hand Illusion Pain • Not a simple receptor area with direct line to speciﬁc area of the brain. No single type of pain stimulus. • Gate control theory: Melzack and Wall - Small ﬁber nerves in the spinal cord “open” the gateway to pain, large ﬁber nerves “close” it. Therefore stimulating large ﬁber nerves can dull pain. e.g. massage, acupuncture • Brain/spinal cord messages can also close the gate. e.g., playing through pain, cultural inﬂuences, visualization of pain, endorphins Pain The brain can also create pain – phantom limb sensations 70% of amputees may feel pain in non-existent limbs **We can sense with our brain even without functioning senses. (remember blindsight?)