Touch and Expressions

 An interesting thing that humans are able to do that isn't thought about is the ability to detect expressions from simply touching someone's face. Not only this but if presented with a photo of a random person and given five minutes to look at it you would be able to recognize the face through touch. How crazy is that? The ability to recognize a person's expressions by placing your hands on their face! In fact there is a method out there that is being taught and continues to be taught to a certain population to be able to effectively communicate with the world. This method is taught to deafblind people to be able to maintain communication with those around as well as be able to read a person's expressions, this method is known as Tadoma.What's astonishing about being able to read a person's expressions through touch is that you don't have to be an expert on how to read expressions whether that be happy, sadness, anger or fear. However this is mostly effective if the person's face that is being touched is constantly producing expressions. 

While it is not that common for someone to randomly place their hands on another person's face to read their expression, it's great to know that such a method exists to be able to recognize people along with assisting those who are unable to communicate through traditional methods. It is important for the brain to recognize faces and the ability that the brain has to recognize a face through any senses available is quite impressive. 

Rosenblum, L.D. (2011). See What I'm Sayin: The Extraordinary powers of our five senses. Norton Paperback.