Sarah McIntyre

Assistant Professor

Research

The McIntyre Lab

Holding a mug, feeling the ground as you walk, petting your furry friend, or hugging your child, all of these touch sensations start with deformation of the skin that the nervous system must process to serve physiological, emotional and social goals.

Publications

2026

Otmane Bouchatta, Oumie Thorell, Andrew G. Marshall, Merat Rezaei, Ahmed Barakat, Sarah Mcintyre, Gregory J. Gerling, David A. Mahns, Håkan Olausson, Saad Nagi (2026)

Coding of mechanical pain by myelinated and unmyelinated nociceptors in human hairy skin Pain Reports, Vol. 11, Article e1398 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PR9.0000000000001398

2025

Warren Moore, Johan Nikesjö, Otmane Bouchatta, Adarsh D. Makdani, Pierre Hakizimana, Mikael Rousson, Basil Duvernoy, Sarah Mcintyre, Laura Johanna Pehkonen, Anders Fridberger, Francis McGlone, Håkan Olausson, Saad Nagi, Andrew Marshall (2025)

Robust coupling between the C-tactile afferent and the hair follicle in humans Journal of Physiology, Vol. 603, p. 4593-4608 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1113/JP287706

Irene Perini, Hanna Karlsson, Sarah Mcintyre, Markus Heilig (2025)

Neural correlates of choosing alcohol over a palatable food reward in humans ALCOHOL-CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH, Vol. 49, p. 551-563 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/acer.15532

Hanna Karlsson, Sarah Mcintyre, Sarah Gustavson, David Andersson, Ilona Szczot, Markus Heilig, Irene Perini (2025)

Choice of alcohol over a natural reward: an experimental study in light and heavy social drinkers Psychopharmacology, Vol. 242, p. 327-336 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00213-024-06679-6

Shan Xu, Steven C. Hauser, Saad Nagi, James A. Jablonski, Merat Rezaei, Ewa Jarocka, Andrew G. Marshall, Håkan Olausson, Sarah Mcintyre, Gregory J. Gerling (2025)

Mechanoreceptive Aβ primary afferents discriminate naturalistic social touch inputs at a functionally relevant time scale IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, Vol. 16, p. 346-359 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/taffc.2024.3435060

Organisation

A researcher is looking at encased samples in a lab.

Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience - CSAN

Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience (CSAN) integrates knowledge and methodology from different areas of basic and clinical neuroscience.

Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences (BKV)

What characterizes the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences (BKV) is the wide breadth of research and education. BKV is one of the largest departments at LiU with affiliation mainly to the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

News

Pain relief through artificial touch in new research project

Can a garment made from smart textiles relieve long-term pain? This is what researchers in neuroscience, materials science, pain research, textile science and biomechanics are seeking to find out in a new interdisciplinary research project.

How the nervous system distinguishes social touch

Two types of neurons in the skin may be particularly important for how the brain interprets social contact between people. Knowledge of how the nervous system processes social touch is important in order to develop ways to restore sensation.