<P> Fine touch (or discriminative touch) is a sensory modality that allows a subject to sense and localize touch . The form of touch where localization is not possible is known as crude touch . The posterior column--medial lemniscus pathway is the pathway responsible for the sending of fine touch information to the cerebral cortex of the brain . </P> <P> Crude touch (or non-discriminative touch) is a sensory modality that allows the subject to sense that something has touched them, without being able to localize where they were touched (contrasting "fine touch"). Its fibres are carried in the spinothalamic tract, unlike the fine touch, which is carried in the dorsal column . As fine touch normally works in parallel to crude touch, a person will be able to localize touch until fibres carrying fine touch (Posterior column--medial lemniscus pathway) have been disrupted . Then the subject will feel the touch, but be unable to identify where they were touched . </P> <P> The somatosensory cortex encodes incoming sensory information from receptors all over the body . Affective touch is a type of sensory information that elicits an emotional reaction and is usually social in nature, such as a physical human touch . This type of information is actually coded differently than other sensory information . Intensity of affective touch is still encoded in the primary somatosensory cortex and is processed in a similar way to emotions invoked by sight and sound, as exemplified by the increase of adrenaline caused by the social touch of a loved one, as opposed to the physical inability to touch someone you don't love . </P> <P> Meanwhile, the feeling of pleasantness associated with affective touch activates the anterior cingulate cortex more than the primary somatosensory cortex . Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data shows that increased blood oxygen level contrast (BOLD) signal in the anterior cingulate cortex as well as the prefrontal cortex is highly correlated with pleasantness scores of an affective touch . Inhibitory transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the primary somatosensory cortex inhibits the perception of affective touch intensity, but not affective touch pleasantness . Therefore, the S1 is not directly involved in processing socially affective touch pleasantness, but still plays a role in discriminating touch location and intensity . </P>

How is the location of the sense of touch different from the other senses