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Biologists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in Florida have discovered a new mechanism that possibly triggers the sense of touch. The findings revealed that "rafts" of fatty lipids on the cell surface act as sections to stop certain enzymes from mixing with other binding partners.

These rafts are dislocated through touch while the enzymes are mixing with their binding partners. The enzymes' machanosensation then triggers a signal that communicates the touch to receptive proteins in the cell. The mixing of enzymes produces signaling lipid phosphatidic acids which create the sense of touch.

The cellular activity behind the mechanism of touch reacted behind the lipid rafts through the small clumps of proteins on the small membrane. The cell membrane carries the important role of the cells' activities. The lipid rafts inside the cells are classified as assemble and disassemble. The kinetic dislocation of lipid rafts is a mechanosensor for phospholipase D.

Mechanosensation provides a mechanical force that alerts rafts to combine with their binding partners, allowing enzymes to meet and release signals. These signals will be picked by other proteins in the cell membrane and carried to the brain to signal the sense of touch. Enzymes in lipid rafts regulate cellular responses to many stimuli.

The lipid rafts were observed real-time through a technique called super-resolution imaging.  The TSRI biologist Scott Hansen confirmed that the new findings of mechanosensation are different from the previous. The study circulated recently in the journal Nature Communications.

The brain generates a multitude of senses. The five general senses are the sense of vision, audition, gestation, olfaction, and somatosensation. Humans have nervous system which determine a specific sensory system to dedicate each sense. Senses are physiological capacity of humans that provides data for perception.

The ability to determine these senses are recognized through stimulation. These recognized sensory modalities are thermoception, proprioception, nociception, equilibrioception, and mechanoreception. Thus, the responses to these modalities are related to stimuli ray.