Merrick CK, Hignett S, Rosati R, Filingeri, D

Despite not possessing a skin wetness receptor, humans often experience wet stimuli. Cold sensations trigger these wetness perceptions, yet the maximum sensitivity of our wetness sensing system remains to be established. We therefore aimed to quantify the minimum amount of water that can be detected on an index fingerpad and whether moisture temperature modifies this. Moisture temperature has an influence on both wetness perception and thermal sensation. Although moisture temperature did not significantly shift wetness threshold sensitivity, thermal sensations arising from different moisture volumes played a key role in the magnitude estimation of different wet stimuli above threshold.