Human Touch in Healthcare

This textbook presents the essential research findings on human touch and haptic perception in a concise manner for students and health professionals. Focusing on anatomical, neural and physiological as well as psychological, social and clinical aspects, the scope of this book ranges from the fetus in the womb to the older adult in need of care. The chapters can be read individually or consecutively, and cross-chapter content is indicated by chapter references. Key learning points are highlighted at the end of each section, and figures, illustrations, and references facilitate the learning process. The quality of the presented study results has been critically analyzed and only randomized controlled studies are reported, which gives the reader a critical representation of the current state of knowledge. The textbook also provides valuable suggestions for future research by noting blind spots in existing research, and by pointing to methodological challenges in the implementation of high quality studies. Hence, this textbook is not only a representation of current knowledge, but also an epistemological analysis of the research process. There has been a surge of research about the sense of touch in the past ten years, which is incorporated in this book.  This textbook will be an invaluable tool for physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurses and other health professionals in everyday professional life.

Dr. Stephanie Margarete Mueller is an experimental psychologist and Junior research group leader at the Haptic Research Lab at the University of Leipzig. Her work focuses on body-oriented and touch-based treatment approaches as well as on testing and training of human haptic perception.Prof. Dr. Claudia Winkelmann is a physical therapist and board member of several journals, e.g. European Journal of Manual Medicine, and publishers in the field of health care system. For teaching, she conducts the propaedeutic of active touch performance (PakT) for health professions. Research activity on the subject of social touch in midwifery, musculoskeletal pain and geriatrics, etc.Prof. Dr. Martin Grunwald, experimental psychologist, founded the world's first Haptic Research Lab in 1996 (University of Leipzig) and has worked at the Universities of Leipzig, Jena, Bonn and Boston (MIT). He is an internationally renowned scientist and author on the neurobiological and clinical aspects of haptic perception. Furthermore, he has developed diagnostic (haptic and proprioceptive) test systems and body-oriented therapeutic approaches (including for neonatology and psychiatry) and is editor of the anthology Human Haptic Perception - Basics and Applications (2008, Birkhaeuser).