New research shows that humans distinguish the difference
between fine textures, such as silk or satin, through vibrations, which are
picked up by two separate sets of nerve receptors in the skin and relayed to
the brain.
Previous research has shown that coarse textures, such as
Braille dot patterns, are encoded by receptors that are densely packed into the
primate fingertip. The spatial layout of responses of these receptors
corresponds to the spatial layout of surface features of a texture.