The 'somatosensory system' is asensory system that detects experiences labelled as touch orpressure,temperature (warm or cold),pain (includingitch andtickle) and those that belong toproprioception. These are the sensations ofmuscle movement andjoint position includingposture,movement, visceral (internal) senses andfacial expression.Visceral senses have to do with sensory information from within the body, such asstomach aches.
Touch may be considered one of five humansenses; however, when a person touches something or somebody this gives rise to variousfeelings: theperception ofpressure (shape,softness,texture,vibration, etc.), relativetemperature and sometimespain. Thus the term "touch" is actually the combined term for several senses. In medicine, the colloquial term "touch" is usually replaced withsomatic senses, to better reflect the variety of mechanisms involved.
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