The McIntyre Lab – Lab for Haptics, Touch and Mechanosensation Research, LHTMR
The McIntyre Lab
The skin is our interface with the mechanical world, and the nervous system is the processor that makes sense of the input signals we get through the skin. We are interested in the whole spectrum of touch sensations that humans feel in the world, and how the nervous system can efficiently handle and make sense of this continuous stream of diverse information.
We are a multi-disciplinary team incorporating expertise from neuroscience, biology, psychology and engineering. We study human touch sensation using a variety of techniques to address questions from a whole-system perspective. We use electrophysiology in humans to record from touch-sensitive neurons in the peripheral nervous system. We evaluate sensory function using psychophysics, behavioral studies and surveys. To measure surface level skin mechanics, we use 3D video capture and computer vision to model human-to-human touch. To capture sub-surface skin mechanics we use optical coherence tomography (OCT). A key focus is on characterizing and understanding the full range of touch inputs that humans experience in the world. We want to understand how the nervous system can process tactile signals to produce functional outcomes that help us navigate our physical, emotional and social environments.