Sense of Touch

The human body has different types of senses, i.e. taste, sound, touch, smell, and vision. 

The sense of touch is the most used sensory tool in our body and also is the largest sense organ of the body. Skin acts as the sense organ for touch, and it is spread all across our body. 

Sense of Touch

• The touch is a primary sense that we use to identify a lot of substances in daily life. 

• From touching ice to feeling cold chills to getting a sudden shock on touching a hot pan, we understand temperatures by the touch. 

• Touch also helps to differentiate between a soft cotton ball to a rough jute bag. Hence, we understand smoothness or roughness. 

• We can detect a touch on any part of our body, and every touch sends a unique signal to our brain, allowing us to understand where we are being touched.  

Touching Different Objects for Different Sensations.

Sense Organs

Sense is a stimulus that we understand through different receptors in our body. Those receptors of the senses are called sense organs. We have in total 5 sense organs, i.e. eyes, ears, tongue, nose, and skin. These organs detect various different stimuli, which are light, sound, taste, smell, and touch. 

Types of Senses

Vision

Our vision or the visuals that we can see is through our eyes. The eyes are a very important sense organ that allows us to see our environment. The eyes are sensitive to light, and the environment sends the images to our brains. 

Eye

Taste

Taste is the sense that is received by us through the tongue. The tongue is a key sense organ that allows us to taste the flavours in our food because of the taste buds. These taste buds on the tongue can sense different tastes.

Tongue

Sound

We understand with the help of our ears. Ears are the auditory sense organs and let us perceive sounds. We perceive sounds as vibrations, and the vibrations in the air are captured by the ears. 

Ear

Smell

The sense of smell is received by the nose. The nose is the sense organ that works alongside the tongue to give us the best sense of flavours in our food. It helps us to perceive all different kinds of smells, and that can be detected by the olfactory receptors, which are minute hair-like outgrowths in the nose.

Smelling Through the Nose

Touch

Touch is felt by the skin. The  Skin is the largest sense organ of our body. It can detect the sense of touch and anything that has to be felt by touch.

Skin

Examples of Sense of Touch

• We can sense temperature, be it cold or hot.  Touching boiling water will let us feel the heat. 

Touching ice cubes from the refrigerator allows us to feel cold. 

• We can sense the texture of a substance, be it smooth or rough. Touching a cement wall shall feel rough. Touching a silk cloth will feel very smooth.

• We can sense if a substance is solid or liquid. Touching water or oil will allow us to feel a liquid. Touching a piece of iron will feel solid. 

• We can experience emotions through touch as well. A pat on our shoulders makes us feel proud. Whereas slapping someone shows anger and makes us experience pain. 

The Most Sensitive Organ in Our Body

• It is the skin that is the most sensitive organ of our body. 

• Skin is a flexible surface with hair, sweat glands and nails. 

• Our entire body is covered with a skin layer. 

• The skin surface has nerves underneath that allow us to understand the location and type of touch by sending the signal to the brain. 

Summary

The different sense organs in the human body can detect different kinds of stimuli. Out of all the sense organs, the sense of touch is perceived by the most widespread sense organ. This sense is governed by two sets of sensory nerves in the body. The sense of touch becomes weaker with old age. The sense of touch is the first sense that develops in a baby. We can differentiate between the touch of our dear ones. A touch can make you feel scared or happy.