Why does water feel WET? Temperature and texture change lets us sense liquid, study finds

  • Scientists from Loughborough University studied why we feel wetness
  • They found that while we don't have 'wet receptors' our brains know what water should feel like based on its temperature and texture
  • We can more easily perceive wetness if water is colder
  • However when nerves are blocked we struggle to 'feel' water
  • And hairier skin is better and detecting water than bare skin like fingertips 

By Jonathan O'Callaghan for MailOnline

Published: | Updated:

The reason why water feels wet to humans is more complicated than you might think.

Although we come into contact with it on an almost daily basis, our skin does not actually have receptors that sense wetness.

This puzzled scientists as to why we can ‘feel’ water but now they say it is due to us measuring temperature and texture changes when we come into contact with it.

Scientists from Loughborough University studied why we feel wetness (stock image shown). They found that while we don't have 'wet receptors' our brains know what water should feel like based on its temperature and texture, and we can more easily perceive wetness if water is colder

Scientists from Loughborough University studied why we feel wetness (stock image shown). They found that while we don't have 'wet receptors' our brains know what water should feel like based on its temperature and texture, and we can more easily perceive wetness if water is colder

The research was carried out by Loughborough University and Oxylane Research in France.

In the experiment 13 male volunteers were exposed to cold (25°C/77°F), medium (30°C/86°F) and warm (35°C/95°F) water.

They were then asked to report the level of wetness they felt, while a blood pressure pump was also used as a nerve block in some experiments.

IS WATER ON EARTH OLDER THAN THE SUN? 

Water filling the Earth's oceans is older than the formation of the sun, increasing the chances of life emerging among the stars, scientists have revealed.

The discovery suggests that water may be a common ingredient in the clouds of dust and gas from which solar systems are born, and not 'special' to our own.

This has major implications for the likelihood of life being found on exoplanets orbiting stars beyond the sun, according to researchers. 

Lead author Ilsedore Cleeves, from the University of Michigen, said: ''If our solar system's formation was typical, this implies that water is a common ingredient during the formation of all planetary systems.' 

Each participant was tested on the hairy skin on their forearms and the bare skin on their fingertips.

The researchers found they could more easily perceive wetness the colder the temperature was.

And they also found the volunteers were less sensitive when their nerves were blocked by the blood pressure bump.

In addition hairier skin was more sensitive than bare skin.

The researchers suggest that our concept of wetness is actually a ‘perceptual illusion’, and that our brain evokes a response based on prior knowledge.

What we feel when we are wet is partially just what we think we should feel, based on the temperature difference of the water and its texture.

‘This model supports the hypothesis that the brain infers about the perception of wetness in a rational fashion,’ the researchers conclude. 

The researchers suggest that our concept of wetness is actually a ‘perceptual illusion’, and that our brain evokes a response based on prior knowledge of water. Pictured is Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo doing the ice bucket challenge at the F1 Grand Prix in Belgium in August 2014

The researchers suggest that our concept of wetness is actually a ‘perceptual illusion’, and that our brain evokes a response based on prior knowledge of water. Pictured is Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo doing the ice bucket challenge at the F1 Grand Prix in Belgium in August 2014


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