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[Therapeutic touch for the healing of skin injuries in guinea pigs].

This study verifies the action of therapeutic touch--a complementary practice- over the process of healing of injuries caused in the skin of guinea pigs. It is a quantitative study of the experimental kind, and there was a comparison of healing speed among 10 guinea pigs that received water energized with such technique (group B) and 10 guinea pigs that received water with no treatment (group A). The project was executed in the experimental laboratory of the Nursing School at the University of São Paulo, and the length of the bruises was measured five times, at every four days. Among the finds, it was observed that, after 20 days, 100% of the guinea pigs in the group B had their bruises fully healed, which did not happen to 4 guinea pigs (40%) in group A.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Detection of invariants by haptic touch across age groups: rod length perception.

This study examined the development in the detection of maximum eigenvalues and static moment as invariants, through a task of perceiving rod length without visual information by haptic touch. 34 participants ages 6 to 83 years participated in the experiment. Their exploratory behavior and perceptions of rod length were analyzed by age group (Children: 6 to 12 years old; Young Adult: 21 to 25 years old; Middle Age: 31 to 56 years old; and Older: 65 to 83 years old). A behavior analysis indicated that use of vertical swinging increased for the Young Adult group and decreased with age for the Older group, whereas Children frequently held the rod without wielding. Analysis showed that, by age, differences in coefficients on the maximum eigenvalue and static moment were parallel with an exploratory behavioral change. Finally, the effect of different exploratory behaviors on length perception was discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Touch: a computerized bibliography.

A computerized bibliography of references relating to "touch" has been prepared. It currently contains approximately 4000 references which belong under the following general categories--physiology and neurophysiology; sensation; perception; cognition; social, cultural, and developmental issues; clinical pathology; the deaf and blind; tactile communication and tactile aesthetics. References have been obtained primarily from the Psychological Abstracts, with classification codes added on the basis of the abstract's content. Master copies and keyword searches may be obtained on the most up-to-date version of the bibliography.

Bibliographies as Topic↗
PubMed1988

Human emotion communication by touch: a modified replication of an experiment by Manfred Clynes.

In 1973 Manfred Clynes wrote a paper about the biocybernetics of emotion communication in which he described an experiment which seemed to point to a universal metalanguage with which human beings communicate specific emotions by touch. In an attempt to confirm Clyne's findings by replicating his experiment, a flaw was discovered in the design of his apparatus for detecting tactile patterns, and the replication study was undertaken using an improved pressure-detection instrument. Data from the replication study were analysed using various techniques but no correlations were found to confirm Clyne's original work.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

An exploratory study of mirror-image shape discrimination in young children: vision and touch.

30 children (18 boys and 12 girls) with a mean age of 4 yr., 8. mo. were subjects in an experiment testing the relative dominance of visual and tactual modalities in mirror-image shape discrimination. The sets of unfamiliar stimuli (written and wooden letters of the English alphabet, P, B, C, U, R, F) were presented to the children randomly. Children matched the stimulus with either another visual or another tactual shape. Analysis suggests touch is not inferior to vision in mirror-image shape discrimination. These results are different from those of previous reports comparing tactual and visual discrimination with nonmirror-image patterns.

Child↗
PubMed1992

Geophysical variables and behavior: LXX. Testing electromagnetic explanations for a possible psychokinetic effect of therapeutic touch on germinating corn seed.

Designs used to test claims for psychic healing of living systems not amenable to suggestion may produce artifact in the results when there is failure to control for other possible explanations. Some experimental methods in psychokinesis may produce electromagnetic field flux which could lead to erroneous conclusions. This study adds electrical and magnetic controls to assess their effect, leading to the conclusion that therapeutically touched corn seeds did not recover from saline injury significantly better than untreated controls.

Electromagnetic Fields↗
PubMed2000

The physiology and psychology of selective attention to touch.

In this chapter we review psychological and physiological experiments on selective attention to touch stimuli. We explore the role of selective attention in tactile target detection and search, determining those tasks that benefit from attention and those which can be effectively performed pre-attentively. We also try to determine the stage at which attentional selection occurs. We review electrophysiological and human brain imaging (PET, fMRI, MEG, SEP) studies to assess how early in the somatosensory processing pathway attentional modulation occurs. There is some evidence that the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) can show attentional effects. However, a number of studies have suggested that there is a hierarchy to attentional modulation in the somatosensory system, with the greatest effects being observed in secondary and association areas.

Afferent Pathways↗
PubMed1994

Heat-induced pain diminishes vibrotactile perception: a touch gate.

The gate control theory of pain (Melzack and Wall, 1965) suggests that tactile stimuli can decrease the perception of pain. We have found the reverse effect: Heat at levels that induce pain can substantially suppress tactile sensitivity, independently of shifts in attention or arousal. Ten human observers were stimulated by a tonic, pain-producing heat stimulus and vibrotactile stimuli (1, 10, and 100 Hz) coincidentally presented to the right thenar eminence. Vibrotactile thresholds were assessed with the skin at a normative temperature of 31 degrees C and at higher temperatures producing pain. Increases in vibrotactile thresholds (mean change = 7.3 dB) occurred at skin temperatures just below and above those that induced pain. Furthermore, absolute-magnitude estimates of suprathreshold vibrotactile stimuli determined during the same experiments showed decreased sensitivity and psychophysical recruitment. The changes are not attributable to attentional or arousal shifts, since they were not associated with changes in auditory thresholds. Furthermore, the changes occurred just below the subjects' pain thresholds (where nociceptors are presumably activated). This over-twofold diminution of vibrotactile sensitivity suggests that heat stimuli capable of inducing pain can significantly diminish taction, perhaps through a "touch gate" in a manner similar to the gate control theory proposed for pain.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Dimensions of spatial acuity in the touch sense: changes over the life span.

Spatial acuity of the touch sense and its variation in aging came under psychophysical scrutiny at the fingertip and control body sites. Acuity is viewed as encompassing the discrimination of four features of simple stimulus configurations: (11) discontinuity (gaps in lines or disks), (2) locus on the skin, (3) length (or area), and (4) orientation (e.g., along or across the finger). Each of these dimensions of acuity serves uniquely in tactile perception, as illustrated in the structure of braille. For their measurement, psychophysical tests were developed and refined. These were aimed at freedom from bias, rapid estimation of acuity thresholds in hundreds of subjects, and eventual applicability to the whole body surface. Some 14 versions of the tests were administered in three experiments, yielding 1478 individual thresholds. Experiment I (15 young and 15 elderly subjects) and Experiment II (131 subjects, ages 18 to 87 years) shed light on the nature of discrimination of discontiniuty and orientation. These mainly concern pitfalls of measurement and influence of exact stimulus configuration. Experiment III (115 subjects, ages 8 to 86 years) examined refined versions of tests for all four dimensions of acuity. Four principal findings emerged: (1) At all ages, thresholds for the four dimensions of acuity differ from one another in size--in order from smallest to largest: length, locus, orientation, and discontinuity. Exact sizes differ for transverse and longitudinal stimulus alignment. (2) All four acuity dimensions deteriorate with age, to a first approximation manifesting a constant increase in threshold of approximately 1% per annum between ages 20 and 80 years. That similar rates of deterioration characterize all four dimensions in the fingertip suggests a common mechanism, possibly thinning of the same mediating receptor network. (3) Acuity at more central sites (forearm, lip) deteriorates more slowly than at the fingertip. (4) Individual differences in acuity abound, even after the effects of aging are discounted.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Spatial acuity of touch: ubiquitous decline with aging revealed by repeated threshold testing.

Spatial acuity of touch, like that of vision, tends to decline eventually in nearly everybody's lifetime. This has been revealed by more thorough than customary testing of individual young and elderly subjects. Three kinds of acuity threshold were assessed repeatedly in the index finger. These measured ability to discriminate tactile (1) gaps (by a refined version of two-point threshold), (2) orientation of lines (across vs. along the finger), and (3) length of lines. These acuities relate to prominent discriminatory features of braille, and have been shown earlier to average about 1% larger per annum over the adult life span from about 20 to 80 years. Although there were reliable differences among the elderly subjects in the present experiment, all of them tested consistently worse than the least acute young adult controls. The customary single brief threshold tests heretofore applied are inadequate to capture this ubiquitous but differential individual deficit in advanced age; however, the average of six 15- to 20-min tests spread over 3 days proved more than adequate. The method of repeated threshold testing--applied earlier to olfactory and gustatory sensitivity, and now to tactile acuity--serves to dispel the notion that incidence of sensory loss with aging is highly idiosyncratic.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

External and body-centered frames of reference in spatial memory: evidence from touch.

The study reports independent effects of external and body-centered reference cues on spatial coding of an irregular sequence of haptic locations. The aim was to investigate the nature of spatial coding by using a modality that does not provide distal cues routinely. Our method isolates and combines body-centered and external spatial reference cues for irregularly placed locations, scanned along a raised-line route. Disrupting body-centered reference for the locations, by orienting the map differently to the body in the test phase than in the presentation phase, doubled errors in positioning the locations along the route in recall. Adding external reference, by giving instructions to use a surrounding frame for reference when body-centered coding was disrupted, reduced errors to near baseline (no-rotation) levels. Adding external reference cues to intact (not displaced) body-centered reference halved errors, as compared with the baseline. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that accurate spatial coding is determined by the congruence of potential reference cues from diverse sources. The new findings suggest that external and body-centered reference cues have independent additive effects on spatial coding. The sequence of locations had a significant effect in all the reference conditions, suggesting the additional use of fortuitous but distinctive local touch cues on the route. The discussion considers theoretical and practical implications of the results.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Frequency of occurrence and rankings for touch-related adjectives.

A three-phased study was conducted in order to develop a standardized list of touch-related adjectives. The final list consisted of 306 words that were categorized in 440 instances according to the Lederman and Klatzky (1987, 1990) dimensions of haptic properties (some words were classified in more than one dimension). The Kucera and Francis (1967) frequency of occurrence in written English for all words in the final list was also determined. A correlation was found between frequency of occurrence on the list and Kucera and Francis frequency. An analysis of the word dimensions and future applications are discussed.

Humans↗
PubMed1996

Touch dominates haptic estimates of discordant visual-haptic size.

Observers (72 college students) estimated the size of plastic squares that they held in their fingers and simultaneously viewed through a reducing lens that halved the squares' visual size. The squares were grasped from below through a cloth that prevented direct sight of the hand. Each estimate was a match selected later, either haptically or visually, from a set of comparison squares. Vision dominated the visual estimates and touch dominated the haptic estimates, whether or not the observers knew in advance which type of estimate they would be asked to make. Neither modality inherently dominates perceived size.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Tensorial basis to the constancy of perceived object extent over variations of dynamic touch.

Subjects wielded occluded rods, with or without attached masses, and reported the distances reachable with their distal tips. Experiments 1-3 compared wielding about the wrist, the elbow, and the shoulder. Experiments 4 and 5 compared free wielding, using the whole arm, with wielding only about the wrist. The two comparisons, respectively, were of spatial and temporal variations in the rod's rotational inertia. Perceived extent was found to be constant in both comparisons. This constancy was tied to the inertia tensor Iij defined about a point that remains a fixed distance from the object during wielding--an invariant of the spatially and temporally dependent patterning of mechanical energy impressed upon the tissues of the body. Discussion focused on the reciprocal action and perception capabilities of multisegmented limbs, the tensorial relations in the neurobiology of dynamic touch, and the strategy of understanding perceptual constancy through invariants.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Influence of visual guidance on braille recognition: low lighting also helps touch.

This study was an attempt to clarify the mechanisms responsible for the benefits of visual guidance in tactual braille recognition. Subjects touched +90 degrees tilted braille under normal room lighting, or with low lighting, with or without visual guidance. Both visual information about finger angle and spatial reference information were manipulated with stained glass and light-emitting diodes. The provision of visual information about finger angle alone was no help to braille recognition, and performance was low. Adding visual spatial reference information to vision of finger angle raised performance. However, recognition accuracy was also substantially improved by low lighting. The benefits of darkness for haptics did not generalize to the reading of upright, two-letter braille words. It was proposed that extraneous visual information may distract sighted subjects in haptic tasks that require mental rotation of visual images.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Inertial eigenvalues, rod density, and rod diameter in length perception by dynamic touch.

Four experiments addressed the relevance of the eigenvalues Ik of the inertia tensor for perceiving length by dynamic touch. Experiments 1-2 focused on the consequences of limiting variation in the minimum eigenvalue I3. Both revealed that perceived length is a function of Ik. Whether the contribution of I3 is detected, however, depends on the range of values that characterize a particular object set. Experiments 3-4 considered the relationship between an independent index of a rod's diameter, which does not affect Ik, and actual manipulation of a rod's diameter, which does affect Ik. Whereas the former appeared as satisfaction of implicit instructions to alter reports of perceived length, the latter entailed actual differences in perceived length in accordance with Ik. Results are discussed with respect to the links among actual length, perceived length, and Ik, as well as, in particular, how these links guarantee that perceived length is in the range of actual lengths.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Treating children with therapeutic and healing touch.

HT and TT are unique touch techniques with origins in the nursing profession. They are widely available in pediatric hospitals and often are used as adjunct therapies to decrease stress, anxiety, and pain. Practitioners, as well as patients, may notice improved sense of well-being during and after treatments. Additional research is needed to determine the mechanisms by which these effects occur, the optimal duration and frequency of treatments, factors predictive of treatment response, and the overall costs and benefits of including TT and HT in treatment in addition to traditional therapies. These therapies are safe and readily available.

Child↗