Individual human first-order tactile neurons, those that innervate the mechanoreceptors in the skin, can signal information about edge orientation differences at the limit of what people can feel and across a broad range of speeds relevant for real-world hand use.

By acting as versatile signal-processors that encode flexible coordinate representations, muscle spindles challenge current widely held views concerning the role of proprioceptors and the peripheral nervous system in sensorimotor function.

Single-nucleus transcriptomics exposes unique features of human somatosensory neurons and clues that may help resolve repeated problems in translating new experimental approaches for treating pain.

Synchronous recording of skin deformations at the contact with a transparent surface and of tactile afferents from the fingertip reveals that afferents signal incipient slip.

Diverse muscle spindle firing, critical for a range of sensorimotor behaviors, is compactly explained by first principles of force development in specialized muscle fibers within the sensors.

Lesion analyses in right hemisphere stroke patients reveal the crucial role of the right anterior and posterior insula in the perception of affective touch.

Pleasant touch perception in humans is unaffected by spinothalamic disruption indicating integrated spinal processing of hedonic and discriminative tactile inputs rather than privileged C-tactile-lamina I-spinothalamic projections.

Perception of vibrotactile frequency depends on the neural discharge pattern rather than the afferent type, thus requiring a reevaluation of the notion of Pacinian/non-Pacinian channels in tactile sensory system.

Electrophysiology and information theory show that diverse classes of mechanoreceptors in the face inform the mouse brain about whisking.