School of Natural Science & Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK; Institute of Psychology, Health & Society, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3BX, UK.
Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, University of Gothenburg, Box 432, 40530 Göteborg, Sweden.
Neuron. 2014 May 21;82(4):737-55. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.05.001.
The multimodal properties of the human somatosensory system continue to be unravelled. There is mounting evidence that one of these submodalities-touch-has another dimension, providing not only its well-recognized discriminative input to the brain, but also an affective input. It has long been recognized that touch plays an important role in many forms of social communication and a number of theories have been proposed to explain observations and beliefs about the "power of touch." Here, we propose that a class of low-threshold mechanosensitive C fibers that innervate the hairy skin represent the neurobiological substrate for the affective and rewarding properties of touch.
人类躯体感觉系统的多模态特性仍在不断被揭示。越来越多的证据表明，这些亚模态之一——触觉——具有另一个维度，它不仅为大脑提供了其广为人知的辨别输入，还提供了情感输入。长期以来，人们一直认识到触摸在许多形式的社会交流中起着重要作用，并且已经提出了一些理论来解释关于“触摸的力量”的观察和信念。在这里，我们提出，一类低阈值机械敏感 C 纤维支配毛发皮肤，代表了触摸的情感和奖励特性的神经生物学基础。
