A team at the University of Virginia has uncovered new insights into why women usually have a keener sense of touch than men. An important and clever study, this begins to unravel the complicated interplay of health imperatives in the skin and physical experience.
Soft Skin, Sensitive Fingers
The skin of a woman’s finger is twice as soft as that of her male counterpart, and this seemingly minute difference has an enormous impact on touch sensitivity.
It is known that in general women have softer fingers than men, and this physical difference plays an important role in their ability to recognize the fine texture (roughness), shape and stiffness of objects. What they found was that the relatively softer surface of female skin affords more contact area with things,, which ultimately results in a more finely tuned interpretation of what is touched.
In any case, Gerling, a haptic expert (he studies interactive touch technology), says that the gender differences in this finding are based on how our skin works with the world. The trick appears to be that features of physical contact control the admissions of sensory nerve fibers in the skin,” he said Simply put, the skin’s suppleness determines how our nerve receptors react to all the things we touch and interact with, which then gives way to what feels like touch.
Applications and Future Directions
The information obtained from this study may be instrumental in the future design of diverse technologies and medical applications.
The researchers contend that these findings are crucial especially as engineers develop more advanced wearable technologies because they could lead to better touch perception and thus a more human-like, natural user experience with sensors designed in softer materials. In the same vein, advances in prosthetic limbs with touch sensation could profit from understanding how skin properties influence tactile sensitivity.
It could also find use in surgical robotics. Better interfaces that take into account the subtleties of fine human touch allow surgeons to operate with greater precision and dexterity, which in turn leads to better outcomes for patients.
Moreover, besides these technological progressions, the study’s results may apply to types of rehabilitation and occupational therapy since a greater knowledge of how people sense touch might lead to more appropriate training and rehabilitation programs for those with scattered sensory experiences.
Conclusion
Now, however, researchers from the University of Virginia have conducted truly groundbreaking research into the incredibly complex relationship that exists between skin physiology and our sense of touch. This study makes an important scientific contribution in revealing the reason why women have better tactile sensitivity, as well as in providing a mechanistic explanation that can be used to expand the scope of practical applications which benefit human-technology interactions and medical outcomes. This research will undoubtedly have a major influence on what the future of touch based interfaces and sensory experiences looks like, as technology continues to advance.
