Summary

The ability to identify tactile objects depends in part on the perception of their surface microstructure and material properties. Texture perception can, on a first approximation, be described by a number of nameable perceptual axes, such as rough/smooth, hard/soft, sticky/slippery, and warm/cool, which exist within a complex perceptual space. The perception of texture relies on two different neural streams of information: Coarser features, measured in millimeters, are primarily encoded by spatial patterns of activity across one population of tactile nerve fibers, while finer features, down to the micron level, are encoded by finely timed temporal patterns within two other populations of afferents. These two streams of information ascend the somatosensory neuraxis and are eventually combined and further elaborated in the cortex to yield a high-dimensional representation that accounts for our exquisite and stable perception of texture.