The human breast has a larger "blind spot" for location than the middle of the back, making it one of the least precise areas of the body.
Tactile precision on the breast and nipple is lower than the previous benchmarks for the least sensitive parts of the human skin. People often assume these areas are highly tuned for detail, but the brain struggles to pinpoint exactly where a touch is occurring. Most errors in location are systematically biased toward the nipple rather than the actual point of contact. This lack of spatial resolution suggests the brain prioritizes different types of sensory information in these regions. This finding changes how surgeons approach breast reconstruction to ensure they don't accidentally damage the few sensitive nerves that exist. It challenges the assumption that areas associated with high sensation are also areas of high precision.
Tactile localization of the breast, areola, and nipple
bioRxiv · 2022.09.14.507974
Touch plays a key role in our perception of our body and shapes our interactions with the world, from the objects we manipulate to the people we touch. While the tactile sensibility of the hand has been extensively characterized, much less is known about touch on other parts of the body. Despite the important role of the breast in lactation as well as in affective and sexual touch, relatively little is known about its sensory properties. To fill this gap, we investigated the ability of women to