Coding of Pleasant Touch by Unmyelinated Afferents in Humans

Overview

Journal Nat Neurosci

Date 2009 Apr 14

PMID 19363489

Citations 337

Authors

Line S Loken

Johan Wessberg

India Morrison

Francis McGlone

Hakan Olausson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Pleasant touch sensations may begin with neural coding in the periphery by specific afferents. We found that during soft brush stroking, low-threshold unmyelinated mechanoreceptors (C-tactile), but not myelinated afferents, responded most vigorously at intermediate brushing velocities (1-10 cm s(-1)), which were perceived by subjects as being the most pleasant. Our results indicate that C-tactile afferents constitute a privileged peripheral pathway for pleasant tactile stimulation that is likely to signal affiliative social body contact.

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