Human Touch in Healthcare

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 theneurobiological 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).

• Chapter 1. Perceptual dimensions of the haptic system .- Chapter 2. Anatomical and physiological basics.- Chapter 3. Perceptual thresholds and disorders of the haptic system.- Chapter 4. Testing, training and rehabilitation.- Chapter 5. Social touch and touching patients .- Chapter 6. Relevance of touch during pregnancy and birth.- Chapter 7. Relevance of touch for early childhood development.- Chapter 8. Effects of massages and other touch interventions on various diseases.