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Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind
The New York Times bestselling author examines how our sense of touch and emotion are interconnected
Johns Hopkins neuroscientist and bestselling author of The Compass of Pleasure David J. Linden presents an engaging and fascinating examination of how the interface between our sense of touch and our emotional responses affects our social interactions as well as our general health and development. Accessible in its wit and clarity, Touch explores scientific advances in the understanding of touch that help explain our sense of self and our experience of the world.
From skin to nerves to brain, the organization of the body’s touch circuits powerfully influences our lives—affecting everything from consumer choice to sexual intercourse, tool use to the origins of language, chronic pain to healing. Interpersonal touch is crucial to social bonding and individual development. Linden lucidly explains how sensory and emotional context work together to distinguish between perceptions of what feels good and what feels bad. Linking biology and behavioral science, Linden offers an entertaining and enlightening answer to how we feel in every sense of the word.
Johns Hopkins neuroscientist and bestselling author of The Compass of Pleasure David J. Linden presents an engaging and fascinating examination of how the interface between our sense of touch and our emotional responses affects our social interactions as well as our general health and development. Accessible in its wit and clarity, Touch explores scientific advances in the understanding of touch that help explain our sense of self and our experience of the world.
From skin to nerves to brain, the organization of the body’s touch circuits powerfully influences our lives—affecting everything from consumer choice to sexual intercourse, tool use to the origins of language, chronic pain to healing. Interpersonal touch is crucial to social bonding and individual development. Linden lucidly explains how sensory and emotional context work together to distinguish between perceptions of what feels good and what feels bad. Linking biology and behavioral science, Linden offers an entertaining and enlightening answer to how we feel in every sense of the word.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published January 29, 2015
181 people are currently reading
2093 people want to read
About the author
David J. Linden
12 books138 followersDavid J. Linden, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His laboratory has worked for many years on the cellular substrates of memory storage in the brain and a few other topics. He has a longstanding interest in scientific communication and served for many years as the Chief Editor of the Journal of Neurophysiology. He is the author of two bestselling books on the biology of behavior for a general audience, The Accidental Mind (Harvard/Belknap, 2007) and The Compass of Pleasure (Viking Press, 2011) which, to date, have been translated into 14 languages. His most recent book, Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart and Mind will be published by Viking Press (USA/Canada) on January 28, 2015
He lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his two pleasure-seeking children.
He lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his two pleasure-seeking children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
April 14, 2015
Did you know our bodies have one set of nerve fibers that respond only to caresses?
Or that the areas of our skin without hair are very limited -- lips, palms, parts of our sexual organs?
Or that our brains can actually send signals to our spines that either exacerbate or alleviate the pain we feel?
These and dozens of other fascinating insights are part of Linden's book, which takes you on a tour through the one of our five senses that often gets the least attention. The book delves into technical territory at times, with its detailed descriptions of different sensory nerves and how they function, but it's written with clarity, wit and a pleasing diversity of subject matter.
Here you learn not only about the basics of touch, but sexual touch, touch illusions, pain and pleasure, and a whole chapter on itching and scratching (a phenomenon that is still not completely understood, and which includes a shocking photo of a woman who had such an overpowering itch at the top of her forehead that she scratched through the skin and skull to exposure the surface of her brain!).
I love stumbling across these well-done science books, which open up my world to new ideas, new ways of appreciating our biology, and a greater connection with the world around us.
Or that the areas of our skin without hair are very limited -- lips, palms, parts of our sexual organs?
Or that our brains can actually send signals to our spines that either exacerbate or alleviate the pain we feel?
These and dozens of other fascinating insights are part of Linden's book, which takes you on a tour through the one of our five senses that often gets the least attention. The book delves into technical territory at times, with its detailed descriptions of different sensory nerves and how they function, but it's written with clarity, wit and a pleasing diversity of subject matter.
Here you learn not only about the basics of touch, but sexual touch, touch illusions, pain and pleasure, and a whole chapter on itching and scratching (a phenomenon that is still not completely understood, and which includes a shocking photo of a woman who had such an overpowering itch at the top of her forehead that she scratched through the skin and skull to exposure the surface of her brain!).
I love stumbling across these well-done science books, which open up my world to new ideas, new ways of appreciating our biology, and a greater connection with the world around us.
May 12, 2017
Touch is a pretty fascinating book, delving into the importance of the sense of touch for us and what it would mean to lose that sense. It’s not just losing the sensation of your skin touching something, after all: touch receptors also play a part in interpreting pain, heat, etc. In a way, the book as a whole tells you about more than just touch, since it also gives a solid background in the nervous system and the brain.
It’s also pretty focused on stuff like orgasms and sensual touching, sometimes with fairly explicit (and somewhat unnecessary) examples, e.g. a description of a couple having sex. You may or may not find that helps your understanding; I found it intrusive to be told to imagine these things in which I have no interest! Particularly as some of these descriptions are addressed to you, the reader.
I felt that it got a bit scatterbrained at times — sometimes I felt that it wandered away from touch onto other aspects of our sensory experiences, though that’s almost to be expected. We divvy up our senses into some rather artificial boxes at times; just think of how linked scent and taste are. But mostly I found it interesting and easy to read.
Originally reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
It’s also pretty focused on stuff like orgasms and sensual touching, sometimes with fairly explicit (and somewhat unnecessary) examples, e.g. a description of a couple having sex. You may or may not find that helps your understanding; I found it intrusive to be told to imagine these things in which I have no interest! Particularly as some of these descriptions are addressed to you, the reader.
I felt that it got a bit scatterbrained at times — sometimes I felt that it wandered away from touch onto other aspects of our sensory experiences, though that’s almost to be expected. We divvy up our senses into some rather artificial boxes at times; just think of how linked scent and taste are. But mostly I found it interesting and easy to read.
Originally reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
August 30, 2016
“Touch” is a neuroscientist’s perspective on the human sense of touch, and the profound impact it has on life in our species.
It’s a short book, only about 200 pages of substantive text, arranged into eight chapters. The first chapter considers the role that our sense of touch plays in our lives as social animals. There are a number of studies described in this chapter, but I’ll cite only two that I think give an idea of what the chapter is all about. The first considers why a person holding a cold coffee is likely to be viewed more negatively than if that same person was holding a hot coffee after a handshake. The second reports that survey takers in a mall were more likely to gain compliance if they engaged in gentle, casual, and non-creepy touch—e.g. fingers to forearm.
The second chapter explores the combination of sensors we have in our skin—particularly in our fingers--that allow us to conduct feats of dexterity that (while we take them for granted) are phenomenally difficult. For all the billions put into robotics research, robots are nowhere close to being able to complete tasks that any five year old can do. The third chapter examines how humans are uniquely geared to be able to give and recognize a particular type of touch sensation, the caress. Throughout the book there are a number of interesting stories, some of them are scientific case studies and others… not so much. This chapter begins with the story of a man on trial for flying into a rage because his girlfriend couldn’t get the pressure right when engaging in manual stimulation. (The author was actually on the jury.)
The fourth chapter delves more deeply and explicitly into sexual contact. Whereas chapter 3, dealt largely with hand against random skin, this chapter deals in genitals and erogenous zones more specifically. There are also a number of fascinating cases / stories herein. A lot of the chapter deals in how we experience and interpret pleasure.
Chapter five explains a specific type of sensation, that of temperature. It considers why crushed chili feels hot but crushed mint feels cool to the skin. While the focus of the book is on human anatomy, physiology, and social interaction, there are many cases from other species throughout the book. This chapter offers a prime example. It explains how Vampire Bats have a unique ability to sense infrared. This is of benefit to them, since they only take blood meals and, therefore, need to be able to sense where the blood is flowing and has the least insulation (fur) over it.
Continuing the examination of specific kinds of sensation, chapter six is about pain. This is where the neuroscientific perspective offers some interesting insight. In particular, because it considers why soldiers who had multiple gun wounds could do their job on the battlefield with nary a peep of complaint, but then would raise holy hell about a bad blood stick a few days later in the hospital. The case of a medic who was badly shot up but not cognizant of it until later is discussed in some detail.
Chapter 7 deals in the itchy, and asks and answers the question of whether or not itchiness is a particular case of low-intensity pain. By low intensity, I’m not speaking of the compulsive behavior sometimes spurred by such sensations.
Chapter 8 is also highly neuroscience influenced. It deals with various illusions of sensation, and how these illusions come about through the interaction of sense and the brain. While the most famous example of such an illusion is phantom limb pain experienced by amputees, Linden addresses less traumatic and more work-a-day tactile illusions for most of the chapter. (This may be because there are a number of popular works of neuroscience that deal in phantom limbs—most notably V.S. Ramachandran’s books.)
I enjoyed this book. It conveys significant technical detail, but does so in a fashion that is easy for a non-expert to follow both because of readable writing and the use of stories. The author uses frequent graphics to help clarify points, and the graphics (mostly line drawings and graphs) do their job by being easy to follow and interpret.
In short, the book was highly readable, concise, and informative. I’d recommend it for anyone interested in the sense of touch.
It’s a short book, only about 200 pages of substantive text, arranged into eight chapters. The first chapter considers the role that our sense of touch plays in our lives as social animals. There are a number of studies described in this chapter, but I’ll cite only two that I think give an idea of what the chapter is all about. The first considers why a person holding a cold coffee is likely to be viewed more negatively than if that same person was holding a hot coffee after a handshake. The second reports that survey takers in a mall were more likely to gain compliance if they engaged in gentle, casual, and non-creepy touch—e.g. fingers to forearm.
The second chapter explores the combination of sensors we have in our skin—particularly in our fingers--that allow us to conduct feats of dexterity that (while we take them for granted) are phenomenally difficult. For all the billions put into robotics research, robots are nowhere close to being able to complete tasks that any five year old can do. The third chapter examines how humans are uniquely geared to be able to give and recognize a particular type of touch sensation, the caress. Throughout the book there are a number of interesting stories, some of them are scientific case studies and others… not so much. This chapter begins with the story of a man on trial for flying into a rage because his girlfriend couldn’t get the pressure right when engaging in manual stimulation. (The author was actually on the jury.)
The fourth chapter delves more deeply and explicitly into sexual contact. Whereas chapter 3, dealt largely with hand against random skin, this chapter deals in genitals and erogenous zones more specifically. There are also a number of fascinating cases / stories herein. A lot of the chapter deals in how we experience and interpret pleasure.
Chapter five explains a specific type of sensation, that of temperature. It considers why crushed chili feels hot but crushed mint feels cool to the skin. While the focus of the book is on human anatomy, physiology, and social interaction, there are many cases from other species throughout the book. This chapter offers a prime example. It explains how Vampire Bats have a unique ability to sense infrared. This is of benefit to them, since they only take blood meals and, therefore, need to be able to sense where the blood is flowing and has the least insulation (fur) over it.
Continuing the examination of specific kinds of sensation, chapter six is about pain. This is where the neuroscientific perspective offers some interesting insight. In particular, because it considers why soldiers who had multiple gun wounds could do their job on the battlefield with nary a peep of complaint, but then would raise holy hell about a bad blood stick a few days later in the hospital. The case of a medic who was badly shot up but not cognizant of it until later is discussed in some detail.
Chapter 7 deals in the itchy, and asks and answers the question of whether or not itchiness is a particular case of low-intensity pain. By low intensity, I’m not speaking of the compulsive behavior sometimes spurred by such sensations.
Chapter 8 is also highly neuroscience influenced. It deals with various illusions of sensation, and how these illusions come about through the interaction of sense and the brain. While the most famous example of such an illusion is phantom limb pain experienced by amputees, Linden addresses less traumatic and more work-a-day tactile illusions for most of the chapter. (This may be because there are a number of popular works of neuroscience that deal in phantom limbs—most notably V.S. Ramachandran’s books.)
I enjoyed this book. It conveys significant technical detail, but does so in a fashion that is easy for a non-expert to follow both because of readable writing and the use of stories. The author uses frequent graphics to help clarify points, and the graphics (mostly line drawings and graphs) do their job by being easy to follow and interpret.
In short, the book was highly readable, concise, and informative. I’d recommend it for anyone interested in the sense of touch.
July 1, 2019
Meh.
A bit too sciencey
A bit too sciencey
October 29, 2017
On the one hand, this was an interesting subject delivered in an accessible fashion by an enthusiastic author. On the other, it took me absolutely ages to get round to finishing it, and I really had to concentrate fully on it, something that I rarely have to do.
As the title suggests, this book was all about the sensation of touch, particularly the science of how the physical touch sends signals to our brain, and how we interpret those signals. To start with, it is more academic, detailing the make-up of our skin and neural networks, then later discusses different types of touch, such as pain and itching, as well as affectionate touching.
It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what was lacking in this, as the chapter structure of everyday scenario followed by explanation and exploration was a good formula. Some early chapters felt a little too technical to be understood in full by a casual reader like me, but I wasn't lost - I just couldn't remember what was being referred to when the same name was mentioned later on. The writing lacked some of the touches of better writers, but it wasn't noticeably bland, although there were a lot of breaks in some chapters that disrupted the flow slightly.
But it did take me a long time to finish. There were interesting parts and intriguing tangents, but I just didn't engage with this in the same way I have with other popular science books. Perhaps I have a level of reading that is too academic for my taste, and this was above it.
As the title suggests, this book was all about the sensation of touch, particularly the science of how the physical touch sends signals to our brain, and how we interpret those signals. To start with, it is more academic, detailing the make-up of our skin and neural networks, then later discusses different types of touch, such as pain and itching, as well as affectionate touching.
It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what was lacking in this, as the chapter structure of everyday scenario followed by explanation and exploration was a good formula. Some early chapters felt a little too technical to be understood in full by a casual reader like me, but I wasn't lost - I just couldn't remember what was being referred to when the same name was mentioned later on. The writing lacked some of the touches of better writers, but it wasn't noticeably bland, although there were a lot of breaks in some chapters that disrupted the flow slightly.
But it did take me a long time to finish. There were interesting parts and intriguing tangents, but I just didn't engage with this in the same way I have with other popular science books. Perhaps I have a level of reading that is too academic for my taste, and this was above it.
November 16, 2023
3.5 stars
my first audiobook!!!!!! I usually don't like audiobooks bc I feel like I can't focus on it enough to fully understand the content and well. I was right LMAO. I've tried audiobooks before but I didn't really like it bc I felt like I had to put my complete attention to the audiobook but if I do that then I'm just sitting and staring into space and doing nothing and then I get bored. but anyways I thought I'd try with this. bc I listened to this as an audiobook I feel like I maintained like 80% of the content of this book LMAO. this book was quite informational, but there were a TON of science-y words I didn't understand and I feel like I low-key would've understood it more if I read the words in front of me instead of listening to it but oh well. it was actually really interesting to learn about the social impacts that touch has on communities. the rest was fine LMAO. like I didn't really care much about itching and tickling but nevertheless it was still fun to know. also I have never heard the word "orgasm" so many times before in like a single minute. but whatevs. a really informative book but I would only recommend you read this if you're actually really interested in the topic!!!!! I was kinda expecting this one to be a lil like "The Body Keeps the Score" but this one is slightly more scientific in a way and more like a research paper than the other book was. but I still ate it up ig. good read!!!!!
my first audiobook!!!!!! I usually don't like audiobooks bc I feel like I can't focus on it enough to fully understand the content and well. I was right LMAO. I've tried audiobooks before but I didn't really like it bc I felt like I had to put my complete attention to the audiobook but if I do that then I'm just sitting and staring into space and doing nothing and then I get bored. but anyways I thought I'd try with this. bc I listened to this as an audiobook I feel like I maintained like 80% of the content of this book LMAO. this book was quite informational, but there were a TON of science-y words I didn't understand and I feel like I low-key would've understood it more if I read the words in front of me instead of listening to it but oh well. it was actually really interesting to learn about the social impacts that touch has on communities. the rest was fine LMAO. like I didn't really care much about itching and tickling but nevertheless it was still fun to know. also I have never heard the word "orgasm" so many times before in like a single minute. but whatevs. a really informative book but I would only recommend you read this if you're actually really interested in the topic!!!!! I was kinda expecting this one to be a lil like "The Body Keeps the Score" but this one is slightly more scientific in a way and more like a research paper than the other book was. but I still ate it up ig. good read!!!!!
September 22, 2024
That's the fundamental power of biology: No amount of philosophical reasoning, linguistic analysis or introspection could ever have resolved such matters.
There are many pop nonfiction books out there that purport to be 'science', yet invariably when I open the covers, I have to recoil and make many concessions to extract the message somewhere inside. The authors usually claim that their pet topic describes how the entire universe from macro to micro works, they claim to have all the answers, or at least don't mention the parts that don't have answers or has a credible alternative hypothesis.
Now David J Linden's Touch is really, truly a science book. I would not be surprised that it would be required reading for bachelors in certain subjects. It is very accessible- to the educated subject. It uses a lot of academese and terms I knew solely because I myself am an academic (of an entirely different branch of biology). A casual, totally uninitiated reader would perhaps find themselves a bit overwhelmed. Yet I would ask them to persist, because there are rewards in store for this labor.
David J Linden is not afraid of saying 'We don't know this yet'. He keeps his conclusions grounded, and does not extrapolate what he knows about particular nerve fibers to quarks and the solar system. His notes on the back are not just a reference list, but contains detailed explanations to aid understanding. His views in this book are supported by consensus science as I know it. In his explanations of scientific studies he implies how to control for unknown factors and ask scientific questions, and how ethics intertwines here. This book is seeping with that fundamental, burning curiosity about the world that scientists often possess. This is how it should've been done, every time, every topic. His writing envokes trust.
My complaints here are few, but substantial.
First of all, it is a hard read. This was a gift from my mother for graduating high school, and if I had read it then (and not 10 years later), I would not have been so enthused. My knowledge is much broadened now, and my experience was much enriched for it. Yet a layperson might become suspicious of all the academic lingo, even the innocuous words that are uncommon lexicon, such as 'elucidate' and 'foe vs nonfoe'.
Second, despite his palpable progressiveness, the author occasionally used some awkward anecdotes, but one of them stood out as particularly insensitive and ill-advised. He described a gruesome case of a man beating up, raping, starving and chaining his underage girlfriend to the bed for the crime of giving him a bad handjob. When reading this case, I did not know what he wanted to illuminate by this, but I expected something about the girlfriend's horrifying experience. Instead, the stress was on the man's experience of the handjob - in his words, it was either too fast or too slow. With this he explained how C-fibers work, the ones that convey pleasant touch in a specific speed range. I felt he could've used literally any other example, as this particular touch is not at all inherently sexual - it can be the caress of a mother to calm a baby or even a feather on the arm.
Without these, it would be a five star, perfect read that I would recommend to anybody.
I will leave here this quote that resonated deeply, on the topic of 'objective' and 'factual' reality as perceived by a human being:
One key insight is that the brain can send signals down to the pain-transmitting neurons in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord that can say either, "Speak up and say it louder!" or, "Shut up! Dial down the pain information!" The truly amazing fact is that the brain is exerting control over the information that it receives. It is not just taking in all the data and then biasing its perceptions and responses based upon the present emotional or cognitive state; rather, through these descending nerve fibers, it is controlling which sensory information will be received from the spinal cord. This is a weird and counterintuitive state of affairs. The brain actively and subconsciously suppresses or enhances pain information on a moment-to-moment basis. It spins the media, so to speak. This realization that in many cases we have access only to self-censored information is somewhat disconcerting to those of us who like to feel that we have access to unfiltered reality to guide our rational thoughts.
March 16, 2020
"Touch" turned out to be a very interesting book in understanding the anatomy of how we feel touches. Author brilliantly describes the mechanism of sudden, special and painful touches, explains how pain and itching occur. Most notable part of the book is that it is not implicated with difficult information that you barely understand or after some minutes totally forget about; rather David Linden gives us overall information with vast number of images.
However, there are some negative parts too that I did not like about. For example, the first chapter was redundant due to there author had counted several experiments to prove that touch has an important factor in our life. I think it would be enough to include it in Introduction and contribute first chapter to some relevant information. Another example, yet very important, is irritating real life stories about particular problems related to touches was also redundant and we could without problem understand what he is going to tell about.
Overall, I highly recommend to read this book to get basic information about important sense in our body and understand how it works. Personally, I eventually found an application of my knowledge about neuroscience in understanding how nerves and cells collaborate with spinal chord and brain.
However, there are some negative parts too that I did not like about. For example, the first chapter was redundant due to there author had counted several experiments to prove that touch has an important factor in our life. I think it would be enough to include it in Introduction and contribute first chapter to some relevant information. Another example, yet very important, is irritating real life stories about particular problems related to touches was also redundant and we could without problem understand what he is going to tell about.
Overall, I highly recommend to read this book to get basic information about important sense in our body and understand how it works. Personally, I eventually found an application of my knowledge about neuroscience in understanding how nerves and cells collaborate with spinal chord and brain.
January 13, 2020
"The astonishing secrets of our senses, and how to harness them to change your personal and professional life." - Touch, David J. Linden
The synopsis and the blurbs of this book caught my attention, as i'm a person who really loves science
But this book... Well... It is a super hard science. Idk, the information is too much and complicated for me to absorb and understand. And plus i don't have any basic knowledge in biology, this book surely made me feel super clueless with all the jargons
Maybe if you are into biology, and have basic in it, you could read this book. If you are clueless as me, i would not recommend this
The synopsis and the blurbs of this book caught my attention, as i'm a person who really loves science
But this book... Well... It is a super hard science. Idk, the information is too much and complicated for me to absorb and understand. And plus i don't have any basic knowledge in biology, this book surely made me feel super clueless with all the jargons
Maybe if you are into biology, and have basic in it, you could read this book. If you are clueless as me, i would not recommend this
June 27, 2017
The sense of touch is taken for granted. Most of us do not realize that the sense of touch conveys more emotion than any other sense because it has its own emotional wiring system. David J. Linden dives into this sense in this book and gives us all a new insight to our emotions. On Radio Health Journal, our weekly radio show, we had the chance to talk with Dr. Linden about the power of the sense of touch. If you would like to hear our radio show, please check out the link here! https://radiohealthjournal.wordpress....
August 19, 2015
It's refreshing to read a book in science that is not only written with personality, but also whole heartedly a SCIENCE book. I find that many of these books end up being about the scientist's life and accomplishments. However, this one is different and I enjoyed it greatly.
April 14, 2022
“The real tactile world is wonderfully messy and complicated.” This quotation from David Linden applied to his book, Touch: The Science of the Sense that Makes Us Human, too. Linden, a neuro-scientist, wrote an interesting and often overwhelmingly sciency book about how brain interprets its body’s surroundings through touch. But the book wasn’t only about humans (vampire bats and fire beetles, for example) and it wasn’t limited to touch, both of which added context and confusion as I worked my way through the book.
The book covers a range of sensations: itch, pain, and temperature, and explains how some touch carries additional emotional influences such as flirtation and revulsion. He explains the anatomy and physiology of skin expertly, such as differences between hairy and glabrous skin and many of the nerves that provide information from the skin to the brain such as Merkel disk receptors and Ruffini endings. I struggled when he described the electrical and chemical transmission of signals from skin to dozens of named zones in the brain. I understood enough, but people more knowledgeable about human anatomy than me will take away even more from this messy and complicated book.
Part of the value of this book will be as a reference for me. I didn’t know that some nerves transmit information to the brain faster than others. Initial pain arrives far faster than a flirtatious caress. I learned that we humans pay less attention to touch signals that result from our own movement than externally-generated stimuli. I learned that we can modify our brain’s touch map (its ability to recognize where touch originates) based on the amount of tactile stimulation over time. The reduction is sensitivity isn’t equal: the bottoms of feet lose sensitivity twice as much as fingertips. Could that be part of how falling risk increases with age? Thus, if the concentration of Merkel disks decreases with aging, I wonder whether “exercises” or experiences can be designed to help us rebuild either the disks or the map to improve personal awareness and safety.
There was so much to absorb in this book. Linden asked and answered many questions, but he also identified countless questions where research as yet to even begin. The book also reminded me that what we don’t know about ourselves and our world is ginormously vast. It was a tough read, but I plan to use it in my professional studies because it contains so much useful information and insight.
The book covers a range of sensations: itch, pain, and temperature, and explains how some touch carries additional emotional influences such as flirtation and revulsion. He explains the anatomy and physiology of skin expertly, such as differences between hairy and glabrous skin and many of the nerves that provide information from the skin to the brain such as Merkel disk receptors and Ruffini endings. I struggled when he described the electrical and chemical transmission of signals from skin to dozens of named zones in the brain. I understood enough, but people more knowledgeable about human anatomy than me will take away even more from this messy and complicated book.
Part of the value of this book will be as a reference for me. I didn’t know that some nerves transmit information to the brain faster than others. Initial pain arrives far faster than a flirtatious caress. I learned that we humans pay less attention to touch signals that result from our own movement than externally-generated stimuli. I learned that we can modify our brain’s touch map (its ability to recognize where touch originates) based on the amount of tactile stimulation over time. The reduction is sensitivity isn’t equal: the bottoms of feet lose sensitivity twice as much as fingertips. Could that be part of how falling risk increases with age? Thus, if the concentration of Merkel disks decreases with aging, I wonder whether “exercises” or experiences can be designed to help us rebuild either the disks or the map to improve personal awareness and safety.
There was so much to absorb in this book. Linden asked and answered many questions, but he also identified countless questions where research as yet to even begin. The book also reminded me that what we don’t know about ourselves and our world is ginormously vast. It was a tough read, but I plan to use it in my professional studies because it contains so much useful information and insight.
August 25, 2021
I read /Touch: The Science of the Sense that Makes Us Human/, by David Linden:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
This book was fascinating, right after reading about taste. I should read about all the senses.
It covers the biology, physiology, chemistry, and more of sensation, and our perception of sensation. Skin, sensors, the spinal cord, nerves and the nervous system, and the cortexes in the brain that process sensation (and perceived sensation).
I knew that the brain fills in missing details in the visual and hearing systems, such as in our blind spot, and the brain does the same with sensation - no surprise.
Perhaps the most interesting part of this book, at least for those who have sex on the brain, was the physiology and psychology of sexual desire. That could be useful.
I care less about which male and female sensory fields map to which nerves, and which areas of the brain process sensation from different body parts.
Even more useful and interesting was the physiology and psychology of orgasms, including innervated areas (for women) in the vagina, anus, and perineal areas.
Fact I was unaware of: in women, based on their distribution of neural pathway terminations, some women can come from anal penetration alone.
That distribution is what determines (physically) whether it's easiest for different women to come when you stimulate the clitoris or penetrate the vagina or anus.
Clearly research is in order.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
This book was fascinating, right after reading about taste. I should read about all the senses.
It covers the biology, physiology, chemistry, and more of sensation, and our perception of sensation. Skin, sensors, the spinal cord, nerves and the nervous system, and the cortexes in the brain that process sensation (and perceived sensation).
I knew that the brain fills in missing details in the visual and hearing systems, such as in our blind spot, and the brain does the same with sensation - no surprise.
Perhaps the most interesting part of this book, at least for those who have sex on the brain, was the physiology and psychology of sexual desire. That could be useful.
I care less about which male and female sensory fields map to which nerves, and which areas of the brain process sensation from different body parts.
Even more useful and interesting was the physiology and psychology of orgasms, including innervated areas (for women) in the vagina, anus, and perineal areas.
Fact I was unaware of: in women, based on their distribution of neural pathway terminations, some women can come from anal penetration alone.
That distribution is what determines (physically) whether it's easiest for different women to come when you stimulate the clitoris or penetrate the vagina or anus.
Clearly research is in order.
October 10, 2022
I've always been fascinated by alternative and sub conscious forms of knowing, awareness, and intuition. As well as ways the human mind/heart/soul and physiology are cross hatched. This book helped me pull together some more thoughts together on what it means to be a person on earth.
After reading this I am tempted to rate touch as the foundational sense, more primary than vision, taste, hearing, even.
It's perhaps, our first developed sense, being surrounded by a watery hug in the womb. It's how we navigate the world around us, avoiding injury, seeking pleasure, registering experiences. Pull out the sensation of touch, and you're alone. A mind connected to a tube.
Every time I read another book on the body or the brain I feel lucky to be able to be a person and I feel a growing love for God, who became one, too. So many cool interesting things about our skin, nerves, brains, hair, and emotions! What the heck was Paul talking about when he said greet eachother with a holy kiss? Turns out, people need to be hugged, touched, celebrated, caressed, kissed!
All that being said, I loved this subject, but didn't care for the over all tone of the book. Could have used a good dose of transcendence. I was was really digging the last review chapter until he talked about the natural experience of touch being so profound that it was just as deep as anything supernatural. Yes! Yes!
Therefore, we don't have to dig into those supernatural experiences of transcendence. 🤩-😐
Ain't no book gonna say it all, I guess. 🤷🏼♀️
After reading this I am tempted to rate touch as the foundational sense, more primary than vision, taste, hearing, even.
It's perhaps, our first developed sense, being surrounded by a watery hug in the womb. It's how we navigate the world around us, avoiding injury, seeking pleasure, registering experiences. Pull out the sensation of touch, and you're alone. A mind connected to a tube.
Every time I read another book on the body or the brain I feel lucky to be able to be a person and I feel a growing love for God, who became one, too. So many cool interesting things about our skin, nerves, brains, hair, and emotions! What the heck was Paul talking about when he said greet eachother with a holy kiss? Turns out, people need to be hugged, touched, celebrated, caressed, kissed!
All that being said, I loved this subject, but didn't care for the over all tone of the book. Could have used a good dose of transcendence. I was was really digging the last review chapter until he talked about the natural experience of touch being so profound that it was just as deep as anything supernatural. Yes! Yes!
Therefore, we don't have to dig into those supernatural experiences of transcendence. 🤩-😐
Ain't no book gonna say it all, I guess. 🤷🏼♀️
November 29, 2021
Gosh, was this bad! It was so incredibly science-heavy, not approachable at all (and I love science and biology). The interesting stories & questions that are promised in the blurb were nowhere to be found and the author thought it was a FANTASTIC idea to use a REAL LIFE rape case to scientifically explain why a handjob might not feel good. This was just so cruel and made me incredibly mad. What part of the author's mind was sitting in the courtroom while a completely traumatized teenage girl had to plead her case in front of strangers how she got violated in the worst ways (and with the guy having zero regrets and blaming it on the freakin handjob): Yeah, nice, I am going to use this for my book!
Like... WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!
He also showed zero empathy with the survivor, not condemning the situation or the guy in the slightest and I bet that he did not ask for the consent of the survivor to publish her story.
I DNFed the book in the next chapter which was about "sexual touch" and which starts with him describing his own sex life in detail, describing bodies of women he had been with, etc.
Like... dude. No. Just no. If I could give negative stars, I would.
What a shame, because I am obsessed with the cover. But yeah. The author and the editor should be ashamed to publish something like that.
Like... WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!
He also showed zero empathy with the survivor, not condemning the situation or the guy in the slightest and I bet that he did not ask for the consent of the survivor to publish her story.
I DNFed the book in the next chapter which was about "sexual touch" and which starts with him describing his own sex life in detail, describing bodies of women he had been with, etc.
Like... dude. No. Just no. If I could give negative stars, I would.
What a shame, because I am obsessed with the cover. But yeah. The author and the editor should be ashamed to publish something like that.
June 29, 2016
This book was terrible. None of the narrative flair or accessibility of neuroscientists like Norman Doidge. Incredibly boring. It's one of those books that walks right up to the line of interesting...aaaand end chapter. Every time.
And so many "we just don't know" cop outs. I've read a lot of science books about a lot of ambiguous subjects - the best ones at least offer informed hypotheses (even if more than one.) Throwing up your "we just don't know" hands is lazy.
I think he was really only interested in writing the parts about intimacy and sexual touch and his editors made him expand it, because the rest of it felt pretty mailed in.
And so many "we just don't know" cop outs. I've read a lot of science books about a lot of ambiguous subjects - the best ones at least offer informed hypotheses (even if more than one.) Throwing up your "we just don't know" hands is lazy.
I think he was really only interested in writing the parts about intimacy and sexual touch and his editors made him expand it, because the rest of it felt pretty mailed in.
May 31, 2017
I learnt too little from this book. By taking scientific papers and wrapping them in a book cover, one can just obtain a journal (or conference proceedings) but not really a book. I would have been captivated, if there were a story to get me through all of this information. The examples were present but didn't feel on spot most of the times. And what's up with all these diagrams? More of a storyline and less graphs could have done miracles. Just take the story of two lab rats and tell us what they are going through... Yet, the topic is interesting :)
May 27, 2019
I have a new personal policy: if you take the time to describe violent and repeated rape, and it seems to be an attempt to "liven it up" or "add interest" rather than directly necessary to your explanation of the topic at hand, then I stop reading your book. A moment's thought would tell you that some readers will be unable to read this anecdote without pain, and although I'm not among them, I'm not inclined to read pop science written by thoughtless people.
Read
July 16, 2020Update. Bailed. Maybe reading instead of listening would be better, so there could be skimming.
Initial thoughts:
Um. Every chapter there's something unrelated to the subject that annoys me. So far the author has unironically quoted Lolita, downplayed unwanted touch, and referred to a harem. I enjoyed the Pleasure book, so I'll try a little more, but I might not make it through.
Initial thoughts:
Um. Every chapter there's something unrelated to the subject that annoys me. So far the author has unironically quoted Lolita, downplayed unwanted touch, and referred to a harem. I enjoyed the Pleasure book, so I'll try a little more, but I might not make it through.
June 12, 2019
This is one of my favorite non-fiction books. This is my second time reading it, and this time, I read it slowly and took notes. Linden is a talented writer and I use some of his phrasing when I teach my anatomy class.
September 14, 2015
A touchy subject!
April 20, 2021
This book is only for medical students. Unnecessarily technical
January 20, 2025
77%
Touch is such a fundamental sensation. It is extremely protective by our sensory neurons. That's how we detect it, and since it has to deal with the nervous system, I love it. Anything that has to deal with the nervous system is going to get me excited. The sexual parts of this are nice as well. What I found fascinating is the discussion of pain, because pain is an external and an internal stimuli. You can feel pain from internal sources that have nothing to do with your external stimuli. And pain overall is really fascinating. It's supposed to be used as a preventive tool, but it doesn't always work that way. In cases of people that can't feel pain, frequently dying young because they can't feel pain, they don't know how far they can push themselves, and then they suffer from different types of injuries. They don't recover properly. There's the other extreme, where we have people that are in constant extreme pain, and I would rather be in no pain, because then you can at least function and live your life. Tickling, itching. I like that we're discussing the receptors. I'm really interested in the structural composition of the structures themselves. What they look like, how they function, because receptors are so diverse. And the functionality between them is so various. I enjoyed discussing the sexual functions of this book as well. It's rather explicit. I always appreciate it when people don't shy away from those details.
Touch is such a fundamental sensation. It is extremely protective by our sensory neurons. That's how we detect it, and since it has to deal with the nervous system, I love it. Anything that has to deal with the nervous system is going to get me excited. The sexual parts of this are nice as well. What I found fascinating is the discussion of pain, because pain is an external and an internal stimuli. You can feel pain from internal sources that have nothing to do with your external stimuli. And pain overall is really fascinating. It's supposed to be used as a preventive tool, but it doesn't always work that way. In cases of people that can't feel pain, frequently dying young because they can't feel pain, they don't know how far they can push themselves, and then they suffer from different types of injuries. They don't recover properly. There's the other extreme, where we have people that are in constant extreme pain, and I would rather be in no pain, because then you can at least function and live your life. Tickling, itching. I like that we're discussing the receptors. I'm really interested in the structural composition of the structures themselves. What they look like, how they function, because receptors are so diverse. And the functionality between them is so various. I enjoyed discussing the sexual functions of this book as well. It's rather explicit. I always appreciate it when people don't shy away from those details.
March 25, 2025
Fascinating book on the nature of touch as an emotional, biological and sensory experience. Very nerdy but also uses some great anecdotes to ground the book into reality and make it relatable to everyday experience.
November 18, 2024
The audiobook is dry as heck but the content and science is magical. I need to read it another 5 times
July 24, 2025
Meh.
A bit too sciencey
A bit too sciencey
September 23, 2025
Once I hit the acknowledgements it was an “aha!” moment. Great science communication to the best of his abilities but it’s clear that he isn’t a touch specialist.
February 12, 2015
If you could only have use of one of your senses, which would you choose? Why can't we tickle ourselves?
Touch, by David J. Linden, is a fascinating and thorough exploration of the most underrated of our 5 senses. The sensation of touch is so ingrained in our daily lives that we use coloquial references to equate tactile experiences in everyday speech, such as "I had to smooth it over", "I'm itching to try that", and "that is a touching story".
Although the book is sometimes heavily peppered with biological and neurological facts and terms describing the physiological functions behind such sensations as pain, pleasure (yes, orgasm is "touched" on in this book), itching, etc, it's pages are also filled with intriguing case studies. One particularly disturbing case involved a lady's unrelenting and completely uncontrollable urge to scratch her forehead in her sleep, which caused her to scratch through the skin - and skull (she awakened with her green spinal fluid soaking her bed) - this ultimately caused her brain damage. I found that quite memorable, and horrifying! Or the famous case of a boy in Pakistan who jumped off of a high roof to impress his friends. He hit the ground, got up and said, "I feel fine," and he went home and he promptly died because he had no pain to realize that he had broken bones and sustained massive internal injury.
This book would make a great supplemental manual to any human biology or neurology class (although I am glad I don't have to take a test on it's contents - it is packed with terminology and processes I could not muster the effort to retain or memorize). Despite it's scientific potency, it is a great and entertaining read for anyone who is simply curious about the underpinnings of how the sense of touch works, both physically and psychologically. Touch is not just a physical sensation, but is equally defined by the emotional interpretation of it's recipient.
Put this book on your "to-read" list! Here's another review from Publishers Weekly:
“The sensation of touch, so ubiquitous in how we interact with our world, gets a sensualist pop-biology treatment . . . . His exploration of the relationship between the things we feel with our fingertips and those we feel in our hearts begins with social touch and its lasting effects on babies and rats. Linden covers the basics of tactile receptor types and sensory maps before diving into several chapters — all
appropriately science-based, yet somehow slightly lurid and intimate — on caresses, sexual arousal, and orgasm . . . . Linden sandwiches a surprising amount of anatomical information between the stories of bad hand jobs and children who die young because they can’t feel pain.”
—Publishers Weekly
Touch, by David J. Linden, is a fascinating and thorough exploration of the most underrated of our 5 senses. The sensation of touch is so ingrained in our daily lives that we use coloquial references to equate tactile experiences in everyday speech, such as "I had to smooth it over", "I'm itching to try that", and "that is a touching story".
Although the book is sometimes heavily peppered with biological and neurological facts and terms describing the physiological functions behind such sensations as pain, pleasure (yes, orgasm is "touched" on in this book), itching, etc, it's pages are also filled with intriguing case studies. One particularly disturbing case involved a lady's unrelenting and completely uncontrollable urge to scratch her forehead in her sleep, which caused her to scratch through the skin - and skull (she awakened with her green spinal fluid soaking her bed) - this ultimately caused her brain damage. I found that quite memorable, and horrifying! Or the famous case of a boy in Pakistan who jumped off of a high roof to impress his friends. He hit the ground, got up and said, "I feel fine," and he went home and he promptly died because he had no pain to realize that he had broken bones and sustained massive internal injury.
This book would make a great supplemental manual to any human biology or neurology class (although I am glad I don't have to take a test on it's contents - it is packed with terminology and processes I could not muster the effort to retain or memorize). Despite it's scientific potency, it is a great and entertaining read for anyone who is simply curious about the underpinnings of how the sense of touch works, both physically and psychologically. Touch is not just a physical sensation, but is equally defined by the emotional interpretation of it's recipient.
Put this book on your "to-read" list! Here's another review from Publishers Weekly:
“The sensation of touch, so ubiquitous in how we interact with our world, gets a sensualist pop-biology treatment . . . . His exploration of the relationship between the things we feel with our fingertips and those we feel in our hearts begins with social touch and its lasting effects on babies and rats. Linden covers the basics of tactile receptor types and sensory maps before diving into several chapters — all
appropriately science-based, yet somehow slightly lurid and intimate — on caresses, sexual arousal, and orgasm . . . . Linden sandwiches a surprising amount of anatomical information between the stories of bad hand jobs and children who die young because they can’t feel pain.”
—Publishers Weekly
December 27, 2020
This has the subtitle The Science of the Sense that Makes Us Human, but nowhere in it will you find an explanation as to why touch apparently makes us any more human than, say, salmon.
Nevertheless, Touch has all you ever wanted to know about how we (humans) feel. This ranges from the physics of how it works to situations when there’s nothing more involved than our mental assumptions. This is an engaging read for the most part, and there’s lots here that I’ll remember.
I’ll not forget the story of M. the woman who lost feeling in her forehead but developed an itch there so bad that she literally scratched through her skull into her brain. I’ll not forget the cutaneous rabbit. I’ll not forget how horrific Onchocersiasis is, (although I might forget how to say it) and I’ll not forget that no other species has five-year-old offspring that cannot survive independently. Even salmon.
However, I’ve already forgotten what TNF alpha signalling is, exactly what temperatures TRPV1 and TRPM8 are associated with and what the anterior cingulate cortex does.
But it doesn’t matter. There’s an awful lot of interesting stuff here so that, if the technical explanations get the better of you, you can just gloss over that page or so and you’ll find yourself in something far more fascinating. Linden writes pretty well and keeps things bouncing along.
However, while I don’t object to the use of footnotes, he can’t seem to make up his mind what they’re for. Because of that, you have to turn to every single one of them to see whether it’s a simple reference to an experiment or an entire page of information about what you’ve just read. And as his 210 pages have no fewer than 247 footnotes, this gets, shall we say, on one’s nerves.
I think it’s safe to say that you can probably skip over them completely or, if that makes you feel guilty, gloss over them at the end of each chapter. You’ll not miss out a huge amount by omitting them. This is an interesting book which, probably due to the large number of popular science books out there, will hardly make any impression in the annals of popular science literature. It’s worth a read though if you feel inclined.
For more reviews and the 1001 Books Spreadsheet, visit http://arukiyomi.com
Nevertheless, Touch has all you ever wanted to know about how we (humans) feel. This ranges from the physics of how it works to situations when there’s nothing more involved than our mental assumptions. This is an engaging read for the most part, and there’s lots here that I’ll remember.
I’ll not forget the story of M. the woman who lost feeling in her forehead but developed an itch there so bad that she literally scratched through her skull into her brain. I’ll not forget the cutaneous rabbit. I’ll not forget how horrific Onchocersiasis is, (although I might forget how to say it) and I’ll not forget that no other species has five-year-old offspring that cannot survive independently. Even salmon.
However, I’ve already forgotten what TNF alpha signalling is, exactly what temperatures TRPV1 and TRPM8 are associated with and what the anterior cingulate cortex does.
But it doesn’t matter. There’s an awful lot of interesting stuff here so that, if the technical explanations get the better of you, you can just gloss over that page or so and you’ll find yourself in something far more fascinating. Linden writes pretty well and keeps things bouncing along.
However, while I don’t object to the use of footnotes, he can’t seem to make up his mind what they’re for. Because of that, you have to turn to every single one of them to see whether it’s a simple reference to an experiment or an entire page of information about what you’ve just read. And as his 210 pages have no fewer than 247 footnotes, this gets, shall we say, on one’s nerves.
I think it’s safe to say that you can probably skip over them completely or, if that makes you feel guilty, gloss over them at the end of each chapter. You’ll not miss out a huge amount by omitting them. This is an interesting book which, probably due to the large number of popular science books out there, will hardly make any impression in the annals of popular science literature. It’s worth a read though if you feel inclined.
For more reviews and the 1001 Books Spreadsheet, visit http://arukiyomi.com
January 30, 2015
Touch quite clearly is associated with almost every experience of a human being. This book begins by correlating the times a person says “I feel” followed by an emotional adjective to indicate that the tactile sense is wired neurologically to not only our brain but also our emotions. The author then explores the difference between what an affectionate or friendly touch can mean to an encounter and how the recipient of such a touch interprets the future of such a relationship, whether it be in business, education, or elsewhere.
The author then moves into a series of complex experiments that have to do with tactile sense of different experiences, even moving into the field of DNA related to touch, how pain receptors operate to connect with the emotions, and an actual sharing of the connection with the euphorically experienced orgasm which is obviously related to touch. In all of this, however, it is even more phenomenal how few individuals actually realize that most of their experiences are related to the tactile sense. When asked if a person had to lose one sense, which one would the individual choose, none even referred to touch in their processing the question!
There is much more in this text which deserves attention. Each situation is presented with scientifically based testing and validation. It offers the reader time to consider the implications of a handshake, a warm hug, a touch on the shoulder, patting the back or hand of a child, offering someone a warm drink, and many other examples of making a new awareness of touch a tool for better communication and relationships with other human beings in need of this tactile experience. The book is highly readable and laced with stories that are fascinating, funny and surprising! Very nicely done, David J. Linden!
The author then moves into a series of complex experiments that have to do with tactile sense of different experiences, even moving into the field of DNA related to touch, how pain receptors operate to connect with the emotions, and an actual sharing of the connection with the euphorically experienced orgasm which is obviously related to touch. In all of this, however, it is even more phenomenal how few individuals actually realize that most of their experiences are related to the tactile sense. When asked if a person had to lose one sense, which one would the individual choose, none even referred to touch in their processing the question!
There is much more in this text which deserves attention. Each situation is presented with scientifically based testing and validation. It offers the reader time to consider the implications of a handshake, a warm hug, a touch on the shoulder, patting the back or hand of a child, offering someone a warm drink, and many other examples of making a new awareness of touch a tool for better communication and relationships with other human beings in need of this tactile experience. The book is highly readable and laced with stories that are fascinating, funny and surprising! Very nicely done, David J. Linden!
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