Touch: The Science of the Hand, Heart, and Mind

I think I highlighted half of this book! Even though I was once A neuroscience student and also went through medical school, almost all the information in this book was novel to me. Touch is such an integral part of our lives, yet it's remarkable how little we know about it. The good news is that the science of touch has been on the rise in recent years, and Linden does an excellent job of presenting its findings in a comprehensive yet engaging manner. I have a feeling I'll be recounting several of the stories from this book at lectures and cocktail parties many years hence. Thanks to Professor Linden for creating an outstanding resource.

How do we make sense of the world around us? While humans can be said to be primarily visual in interacting with the world, Linden makes a persuasive case that touch is much more fundamental to our emotional well-being and way of relating to the world.Easy to read, Touch doesn't shy away from discussing fine details important to understanding the underlying mechanisms of how we perceive the multitude of varying stimuli that are subsumed under the general heading of "touch" (pressure, thermal, vibrations, etc.) but never becomes so bogged down by technical material as to be unapproachable to a lay reader. The significance of the material covered is further demonstrated by easy to relate to examples, some of which are personal on the author's part--actual, some might be a little too personal. Incidentally, be advised that this book touches on some adult subject subject matter. Nothing too graphic, but more than what one might expect from a book on the neurology of touch and how it impacts cognitive and emotional development.In summary, Touch is both informative and enjoyable and I recommend it as an entertaining way to expand your knowledge of how you interact with the world around you, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Very interesting material. Great tool parents (especially young moms) should have which gets into research on the how skin to skin contact effects later development (there's communication going on through the skin). Can't wait to go out and touch someone - kidding.

This is a great in-depth look at everything that goes into the sense of touch. I realized while reading this just how much touch gets taken for granted and takes a back seat to the other senses. Touch defines who we are as a species just as much as anything else.

David Linden is able to explore scientific matters with exceptional lucidity. Reading the book is as much a history lesson as it is an accurate scientific exposition. I wish all science writers were as outstanding as Linden.

This is a great book for anybody interested in the linkage between brain and body. While its title suggests its a study of touch, the book is more broad, also considering sexual response at length. Linden cites recent scientific research to bolster his arguments, so his conclusions seem very solid. He examines nerve ending in the skin (and those more deeply embedded in the body) at great length, so as to provide a sound scaffold for his meditations on the unity between mind and body. Ultimately, the reader is likely to be persuaded that the mind extends throughout the body, via the nervous system. Linden's examination of the many types of nerve endings was fascinating. I finished the book with a much better understanding of how the sense of touch works, and how it cannot be segregated into one simplistic system.

Wonderful book on the science of touch. I heard an interview with the author on Terry Gross' Fresh Air. As a massage therapist, this subject is relevant to my work. However, anyone who enjoys learning about how the body works and how the brain works could enjoy it. It describes what is known in science about touch and does it in a way that is engaging and easy to understand.

It is a well researched and interesting book. David Linden is acquainted with literature even though his particular neuroscience background isn't directly in touch or feeling. All of his illustrations were taken from publications in the field, for example. The book is nearly a page turner.

It is a good book about Touch but I would have wanted more info on social touch in the ebook

Was very hard to read as it's not written in easy popular language and feels more like a science paper with a lot of complex names and codes. It is interesting, but for a non-scientist this is going to be a long hard reading process. I'm at the last chapter and I'm very much done with it and just waiting for this to end. So not a very fun read experience. And say it as a person that reads only self-help and lifestyle science books.

Excellent book on Touch. How the sensors in the skin are activated, signal transmission to brain, action by brain, etc are explained nicely and humorously for lay folks by author, a neuroscientist.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book.So informative and well written.

This is an excellent study. I have not worked with it sufficiently yet.