tactile discrimination

Tactile discrimination is the ability to differentiate information received through the sense of touch.

The most severe being pain, numbness, loss of tactile discrimination and dexterity.

Cohen et al. (1997) proposed that in their early age, blinded subjects developed strong motivations to tactile discrimination tasks.

It mediates pressure and tactile discrimination sensation.

The absence of proprioception or two point tactile discrimination on one side of the body suggests injury to the contralateral side of the primary somatosensory cortex.

Several studies indicate that type I fibres mediate high resolution tactile discrimination, and are responsible for the ability of our finger tips to feel fine detailed surface patterns (e.g. for reading Braille).

For CRPS, a replicated case series and a randomised repeated measures experiment both demonstrated an effect of tactile discrimination training on pain, disability and sensory function, in people with CRPS of various durations.