- published: 12 Mar 2015
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The somatosensory system, also known as somatic senses, touch or tactile perception, is a complex sensory system. It is considered one of the five traditional senses. It is made up of a number of different receptors, including thermoreceptors, photoreceptors, mechanoreceptors and chemoreceptors. It also comprises essential processing centres, or sensory modalities, such as proprioception, mechanoreception (touch), thermoception (temperature), and nociception (pain). The sensory receptors cover the skin and epithelial tissues, skeletal muscles, bones and joints, internal organs, and the cardiovascular system.
Somatic senses are sometimes referred to as somesthetic senses, with the understanding that somesthesis includes touch, proprioception and (depending on usage) also haptic perception.
Processing primarily occurs in the primary somatosensory area in the parietal lobe of the cerebral cortex: information is sent from the receptors via sensory nerves, through tracts in the spinal cord and finally into the brain.
Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at University of California, Berkeley, where he directs the Berkeley Social Interaction Lab. He is also the director of the Greater Good Science Center, formerly known as the Center for the Development of Peace and Well-Being.
Keltner received his B.A. in psychology and sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1984, he received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1989, and he completed three years of post-doctoral work with Paul Ekman at the University of California, San Francisco.
He took his first academic job, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and then returned to UC Berkeley’s Psychology Department in 1996.
His research focuses on the biological and evolutionary origins of compassion, awe, love, beauty, and power, social class, and social inequality.
Keltner is the co-author of two textbooks, as well as the best-selling Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life, and The Compassionate Instinct. Keltner has published over 190 scientific articles, he has written for the New York Times Magazine, The London Times, and Utne Reader, and has received numerous national prizes and grants for his research. His research has been covered in TIME, Newsweek, The New York Times, the BBC, CNN, NPR, The Wallstreet Journal, and in many other outlets, and been a focus in two panels with the Dalai Lama.