Touch Pressure Research Articles

Evaluation of Breast Skin/Nipple–Areolar Complex Sensation and Quality of Life after Nipple-Sparing Mastectomy Followed by Reconstruction

Background and Objectives: Sensation of the breast skin and nipple–areolar complex (NAC) is commonly assumed to be diminished or completely absent following nipple-sparing mastectomy (NSM) with implant- or expander-based reconstruction. The purpose of this cohort study was to evaluate breast skin and NAC long-term touch pressure sensibility, from 1 month to 1 year, after NSM followed by reconstruction with an implant or expander, and patient quality of life (QoL), hypothesizing that sensibility may diminish with a small progressive return throughout the postoperative period. Materials and Methods: This was achieved by performing sensation tests using Semmes–Weinstein monofilaments (SWM) in nine predefined points of the breast and NAC, a two-point discrimination test (TPD) in the four quadrants of the breast, and QoL assessment using the BREAST-Q. We evaluated 42 patients in Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital, with a total of 66 breasts, who underwent NSM between 2021 and 2023, performing the breast sensation tests before surgery and postoperatively at 1/3/6 months and 1 year. The BREAST-Q was administered to assess patient satisfaction and well-being. Results: Our results reflect a decline in breast skin and NAC sensation in the 1-month evaluation after NSM (mean: 4.67) when compared to the assessment before surgery (mean: 2.57), with a small progressive return reflected in the 3 months (mean: 3.79), 6 months (mean: 3.68), and 1-year evaluations (mean: 3.14). The following were the mean scores obtained from the BREAST-Q: Psychosocial Well-being (mean: 66), Sexual Well-being (mean: 50), Satisfaction with Breasts Pre-OP (mean: 58), satisfaction with breast reconstruction (mean: 52), Satisfaction with Implants, Satisfaction with nipple reconstruction, Physical Well-being Chest, Adverse effects of radiation, and Satisfaction with Information. Conclusions: This study confirms that sensibility diminishes after this procedure, as observed when comparing the sensation evaluation results before the operation with the 1-month evaluation, reflecting a small progressive return in the following months.

Interference haptic stimulation and consistent quantitative tactility in transparent electrotactile screen with pressure-sensitive transistors

Integrating tactile feedback through haptic interfaces enhances experiences in virtual and augmented reality. However, electrotactile systems, which stimulate mechanoreceptors directly, often yield inconsistent tactile results due to variations in pressure between the device and the finger. In this study, we present the integration of a transparent electrotactile screen with pressure-sensitive transistors, ensuring highly consistent quantitative haptic sensations. These transistors effectively calibrate tactile variations caused by touch pressure. Additionally, we explore remote-distance tactile stimulations achieved through the interference of electromagnetic waves. We validated tactile perception using somatosensory evoked potentials, monitoring the somatosensory cortex response. Our haptic screen can stimulate diverse electrotactile sensations and demonstrate various tactile patterns, including Morse code and Braille, when integrated with portable smart devices, delivering a more immersive experience. Furthermore, interference of electric fields allows haptic stimulation to facilitate diverse stimulus positioning at lower current densities, extending the reach beyond direct contact with electrodes of our screen.

Comfort evaluation and physiological effects/autonomic nervous system response of inflatable deep pressure vest in reducing anxiety

BackgroundDeep pressure therapy treats anxiety by triggering physiological responses and promoting calmness. Moreover, measuring user comfort can improve product quality. ObjectiveTo investigate the physiological effects and subjective comfort level of inflatable deep pressure vests to enhance their calming effect. MethodsExperimental research was conducted with a one-group pretest-posttest design for physiological effects using pulse oximetry for peripheral pulse rate and a one-shot case study for three subscale parameters that help evaluate comfort (pressure, touch, and mobility) using the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS). Deep pressure intervention using the Inflatable Vest was performed for three sessions, each lasting 5 min. ResultsThis study was conducted with 46 participants (24 males, 22 females) aged 17–20 (19.52 ± 0.78). Although pulse rate consistently decreased in all sessions, session 1 showed a significant decrease (p = 0.014*, d = 0.379), whereas sessions 2 (p = 0.274, d = 0.163) and 3 (p = 0.597, d = 0.078) demonstrated non-significant decreases with small effect sizes. The pressure comfort subscale showed that 87.0 %, 4.3 %, and 8.7 % of the participants, and the touch comfort subscale test revealed that 82.6 %, 8.7 %, and 73.9 % of the participants rated it as comfortable, very comfortable, and less comfortable, respectively. The mobility subscale test showed that 73.9 % of the participants rated no limitation, 17.4 % rated somewhat limited, and only 8.7 % rated limitation. Decreased pulse rate and pressure comfort were significantly positively correlated (r = 0.282**, p < 0.01), whereas touch pressure and mobility were not (r = 0.160, p > 0.05; and r = 0.121, p > 0.05, respectively). Decreased pulse rate was also positively correlated with the overall score for the three aspects (r = 0.201*, p < 0.05) ConclusionsA comfortable inflatable deep pressure vest provides a physiologically calming effect for therapeutic modalities.

The effect of weighted blankets on sleep and related disorders: a brief review.

Sleep disorders such as insomnia can lead to a range of health problems. The high risk of side effects and drug abuse of traditional pharmacotherapy calls for a safer non-pharmacotherapy. To examine the use and efficacy of weighted blankets in improving sleep and related disorders in different populations and explore the possible mechanisms. A literature search was conducted using PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library and CNKI databases. Eligible studies included an intervention with weighted blankets and outcomes covering sleep and/or related disorders (behavioral disturbance, negative emotions and daytime symptoms). Studies using other deep pressure, compression, or exercise-related interventions were excluded. Most of the included studies showed that weighted blankets could effectively improve sleep quality and alleviate negative emotions and daytime symptoms in patients with sleep disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and other related disorders, with a possible mechanism of deep pressure touch. Weighted blankets might be a promising tool for sleep interventions among individuals with sleep disorders in clinical settings. More high-quality and large-scale randomized controlled trials are needed to further validate the safety and efficacy of weighted blankets and explore precise mechanisms.

User Experiences of Ball Blankets in Adults with Depression-Related Insomnia: A Qualitative Content Analysis Study

Insomnia is prevalent in patients suffering from depression and may itself exacerbate the disability associated with depression and impede the path to recovery. Although crucial in ensuring meaningful interactions and interventions for patients, research on patients’ experiences of depression-related insomnia and its treatment is limited. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate how adult patients with depression-related insomnia experience sleeping with a weighted Protac Ball Blanket®, focusing on how the blanket feels and works and contributes to their subjective sleep quality experience. An inductive content analysis approach was adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 patients. Four categories were identified: 1) Deep and dynamic touch pressure from the plastic balls induced calmness; 2) Changing sensory impressions from the rolling balls distracted attention from distressing thoughts and emotions; 3) The ball blanket improved the quality and quantity of sleep, which increased daily well-being; 4) Sleeping with the ball blanket was associated with positive as well as negative experiences depending on personal preferences for sensory stimulation. This study explains how the Protac Ball Blanket® as a potential non-pharmacological sleep-intervention improved the sleep of adult patients with depression-related insomnia. The blanket was found meaningful for coping with sleeplessness and with mental and physical unrest.

Sensing touch location on an elastic surface by monitoring structural vibrations

In recent years, touchscreens have become ubiquitous, and projected capacitance (p-cap) has arisen as the dominant touch-sensing technology. Though powerful, p-cap has some characteristics that make it less suited for certain applications. Active acoustic sensing (AAS) systems work by sensing the vibration response of an elastic surface to a system-generated excitation and associating specific response characteristics with touch locations on the surface. These systems have the potential to offer advantages over p-cap in terms of scalability, cost, and performance in harsh environments. AAS systems may also offer the ability to sense touch pressure as an additional input parameter. We developed an empirical model of surface vibrational response as a function of the location of an applied force and then used this model to inform the signal processing and machine learning approaches employed in a prototype AAS system. In this presentation, we provide results from our empirical model as well as details of the prototype system, including its construction and performance.

FEELing (key)Pressed: Implicit Touch Pressure Bests Brain Activity for Modeling Emotion Dynamics in the Space Between Stressed & Relaxed.

In-body lived emotional experiences can be complex, with time-varying and dissonant emotions evolving simultaneously; devices responding in real-time to estimate personal human emotion should evolve accordingly. Models assuming generalized emotions exist as discrete states fail to operationalize valuable information inherent in the dynamic and individualistic nature of human emotions. Our multi-resolution emotion self-reporting procedure allows the construction of emotion labels along the Stressed-Relaxed scale, differentiating not only what the emotions are, but how they are transitioning - e.g., "hopeful but getting stressed" vs. "hopeful and starting to relax". We trained participant-dependent hierarchical models of contextualized individual experience to compare emotion classification by modality (brain activity and keypress force from a physical keyboard), then benchmarked classification performance at F1-scores = [0.44, 0.82] (chance F1=0.22, σ = 0.01) and examined high-performing features. Notably, when classifying emotion evolution in the context of an experience that realistically varies in stress, pressure-based features from keypress force proved to be the more informative modality, and more convenient when considering intrusiveness and ease of collection and processing. Finally, we present our FEEL (Force, EEG and Emotion-Labelled) dataset, a collection of brain activity and keypress force data, labelled with self-reported emotion collected during tense videogame play (N = 16) and open-sourced for community exploration.

Deep touch pressure for calming and comfort therapy from the perspective of contact mechanics: A review

Deep touch pressure for calming and comfort therapy from the perspective of contact mechanics: A review

Microphase-Separated Elastic and Ultrastretchable Ionogel for Reliable Ionic Skin with Multimodal Sensation.

Bioinspired artificial skins integrated with reliable human-machine interfaces and stretchable electronic systems have attracted considerable attention. However, the current design faces difficulties in simultaneously achieving satisfactory skin-like mechanical compliance and self-powered multimodal sensing. Here, this work reports a microphase-separated bicontinuous ionogel which possesses skin-like mechanical properties and mimics the multimodal sensing ability of biological skin by ion-driven stimuli-electricity conversion. The ionogel exhibits excellent elasticity and ionic conductivity, high toughness, and ultrastretchability, as well as a Young's modulus similar to that of human skin. Leveraging the ion-polymer interactions enabled selective ion transport, the ionogel can output pulsing or continuous electrical signals in response to diverse stimuli such as strain, touch pressure, and temperature sensitively, demonstrating a unique self-powered multimodal sensing. Furthermore, the ionogel-based I-skin can concurrently sense different stimuli and decouple the variations of the stimuli from the voltage signals with the assistance of a machine-learning model. The ease of fabrication, wide tunability, self-powered multimodal sensing, and the excellent environmental tolerance of the ionogels demonstrate a new strategy in the development of next-generation soft smart mechano-transduction devices.

The giant flexoelectric effect in a luffa plant-based sponge for green devices and energy harvesters

Soft materials that can produce electrical energy under mechanical stimulus or deform significantly via moderate electrical fields are important for applications ranging from soft robotics to biomedical science. Piezoelectricity, the property that would ostensibly promise such a realization, is notably absent from typical soft matter. Flexoelectricity is an alternative form of electromechanical coupling that universally exists in all dielectrics and can generate electricity under nonuniform deformation such as flexure and conversely, a deformation under inhomogeneous electrical fields. The flexoelectric coupling effect is, however, rather modest for most materials and thus remains a critical bottleneck. In this work, we argue that a significant emergent flexoelectric response can be obtained by leveraging a hierarchical porous structure found in biological materials. We experimentally illustrate our thesis for a natural dry luffa vegetable-based sponge and demonstrate an extraordinarily large mass- and deformability-specific electromechanical response with the highest-density-specific equivalent piezoelectric coefficient known for any material (50 times that of polyvinylidene fluoride and more than 10 times that of lead zirconate titanate). Finally, we demonstrate the application of the fabricated natural sponge as green, biodegradable flexible smart devices in the context of sensing (e.g., for speech, touch pressure) and electrical energy harvesting.

Relationship between Cognitive Impairment and Depressive Symptoms with Somatosensory Functions in Diabetic and Non-Diabetic Older Adults and Its Impact on Quality of Life.

Aging is an inevitable process that impacts the peripheral and central nervous systems and is considered one of the strongest risk factors for neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, when it also presents with diabetes mellitus, the risk of neurological damage may be further increased. This current study aimed to explore the relationships between peripheral sensory system decline and cognitive functions, the symptoms of depression, and quality of life (QoL) as metrics of central nervous system impairment in institutionalized older adults. A total of 95 individuals participated in this case-control study, which included diabetics and non-diabetics. The superficial sensory pathway was assessed in terms of thermal sensation, nociception, and non-discriminative touch, and the deep sensory pathway was evaluated by assessing vibration and light touch-pressure sensations. To assess function at the intellectual level, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Trail Making Test (TMT) cognitive functional tests were used, while the symptoms of depression and QoL were explored by employing the Yesavage Geriatric Depression Scale and EuroQol 5D questionnaire (EQ-5D), respectively. In the overall population analyses, altered thermal sensation was significantly associated with cognitive impairment (CI; p < 0.05). In turn, bivariate analyses and a binary logistic regression showed that the symptoms of depression and QoL were significantly related to altered vibratory sensation when assessed using a medical tuning fork (p < 0.05). In the group of diabetic patients, those with CI also had significantly lower thermal sensation (p < 0.05) and non-discriminative touch sensation, although this was only a trend (p = 0.055). Diabetics with depression had a significantly worse non-discriminative touch (p < 0.05) and vibratory sensation when tested with a tuning fork (p < 0.05). In addition, poorer QoL was associated with reduced sensitivity to heat (p < 0.05), light touch pressure (p < 0.05), and vibrations when assessed either with a tuning fork (p < 0.05) or a biothesiometer (p < 0.05). In contrast, no relationships were found between sensory functions and cognitive assessments in non-diabetic patients. These findings indicate that superficial sensitivity damage was related to CI, while deep sensation alterations were related to depression and poor QoL, with diabetes apparently further strengthening these relationships.

Non-Invasive Intraoral Stand-Alone Tongue Control System Based on RSIC-V Edge Computing

The intelligent tongue control system is of great significance for assisting the independent life of patients with a limb disability. In order to more accurately control the assisted living equipment of incompetent patients and solve the power-loss problem of the intelligent tongue control system, this research designs a non-invasive pressure sensor array for tongue touch signal detection in the oral cavity and proposes a tongue control system based on RSIC-V edge computing. The system converts the tongue touch pressure data into specific control instructions on the edge of the RSIC-V chip and transmits them to the receiver, thus reducing the transmission of data. This study takes control of the wheelchair motor as the test object. In the experiment, the speed response time test, the center click task, and the power consumption experiment are carried out, whose results show that the adaptive fuzzy PID control algorithm has good robustness in the system; when the DC motor with a given speed of 750 r/min reaches the steady state, its rise time is 0.108 s and the adjustment time is 0.59 s. The dynamic power consumption of the non-intrusive intraoral stand-alone tongue control system proposed in this paper is found to be 3.745 MW, which is 11.5% lower than the total power consumption of the sTD system.

High-dielectric porous CaCu3Ti4O12/reduced graphene oxide/polydimethylsiloxane foam for wearable, breathable and low crosstalk capacitive pressure sensor

High-dielectric porous CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO)/reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) foam is prepared through a simple sacrificial salt-templating method. By introducing CCTO and rGO fillers into the porous PDMS scaffold, a three-dimensional porous CCTO/rGO/PDMS foam with large dielectric constant of 107.8 is obtained. The CCTO/rGO/PDMS foam also has a low Young’s modulus of 0.007 MPa as well as a high water vapor transmission (WVT) rate of 14 mg/cm2·h (0.5 mm thickness). A wearable, breathable and low crosstalk capacitive pressure sensor based on CCTO/rGO/PDMS foam and porous Ag nanowires (NW)/thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) electrodes has been fabricated. The sensor displays fast response speed (<48 ms), excellent sensitivity (3.5 kPa−1), superior cyclic repeatability and stability (11,000 cycles), as well as high gas permeability (WVT rate of 13 mg/cm2·h). The sensor can be attached to different body positions to monitor diverse physiological activities including breathing, vocal cord vibration and finger touch pressure. Moreover, the pressure sensor array integrated by multiple sensor units with low crosstalk is fabricated to detect spatial pressure distribution.

PrintShear

Most touch-based input devices, such as touchscreens and touchpads, capture low-resolution capacitive images when a finger touches the device's surface. These devices only output the two-dimensional (2D) positions of contacting points, which are insufficient for complex control tasks, such as the manipulation of 3D objects. To expand the modalities of touch inputs, researchers have proposed a variety of techniques, including finger poses, chording gestures, touch pressure, etc. With the rapid development of fingerprint sensing technology, especially under-screen fingerprint sensors, it has become possible to generate input commands to control multiple degrees of freedom (DOF) at a time using fingerprint images. In this paper, we propose PrintShear, a shear input technique based on fingerprint deformation. Lateral, longitudinal and rotational deformations are extracted from fingerprint images and mapped to 3DOF control commands. Further DOF expansion can be achieved through recognition of the contact region of the touching finger. We conducted a 12-person user study to evaluate the performance of PrintShear on 3D docking tasks. Comparisons with other input methods demonstrated the superiority of our approach. Specifically, a 19.79% reduction in completion time was achieved compared with conventional touch input in a full 6DOF 3D object manipulation task.

Oxytocin administration enhances pleasantness and neural responses to gentle stroking but not moderate pressure social touch by increasing peripheral concentrations.

Social touch constitutes a key component of human social relationships, although in some conditions with social dysfunction, such as autism, it can be perceived as unpleasant. We have previously shown that intranasal administration of oxytocin facilitates the pleasantness of social touch and activation of brain reward and social processing regions, although it is unclear if it influences responses to gentle stroking touch mediated by cutaneous C-touch fibers or pressure touch mediated by other types of fibers. Additionally, it is unclear whether endogenous oxytocin acts via direct entry into the brain or by increased peripheral blood concentrations. In a randomized controlled design, we compared effects of intranasal (direct entry into the brain and increased peripheral concentrations) and oral (only peripheral increases) oxytocin on behavioral and neural responses to social touch targeting C-touch (gentle-stroking) or other (medium pressure without stroking) cutaneous receptors. Although both types of touch were perceived as pleasant, intranasal and oral oxytocin equivalently enhanced pleasantness ratings and responses of reward, orbitofrontal cortex, and social processing, superior temporal sulcus, regions only to gentle-stroking not medium pressure touch. Furthermore, increased blood oxytocin concentrations predicted the pleasantness of gentle stroking touch. The specificity of neural effects of oxytocin on C-touch targeted gentle stroking touch were confirmed by time-course extraction and classification analysis. Increased peripheral concentrations of oxytocin primarily modulate its behavioral and neural responses to gentle social touch mediated by C-touch fibers. Findings have potential implications for using oxytocin therapeutically in conditions where social touch is unpleasant. Key Technological Projects of Guangdong Province grant 2018B030335001. NCT05265806.

A Study on Evaluation of Before and After Wearing the Deep Touch Pressure Therapy Compression Garment by Children with Autism

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by severe difficulties in communication and social interaction as well as a restricted pattern of repetitive and stereotyped behaviour. Due to its extensive range of symptoms, including issues with communication and social interaction, repetitive behaviours, and sensory processing disorder, it is known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with ASD experience anxiety which leads to outbursts and eventual meltdowns. Autism interventions typically involve Deep Touch Pressure (DTP) Therapy. Occupational therapists frequently apply deep pressure to patients with autism spectrum disorders. For children with autism, occupational therapists employ a variety of devices to provide deep contact pressure, including weighted vests, compression vests, pneumatic pressure garments, and weighted blankets etc. Research examining deep pressure is scarce. Additionally, a number of studies have shown the efficacy of DTP. A therapy compression garment for autistic children with sensory defensiveness was developed using a user-centric design paradigm. The aim of this study was to evaluate the before and after wearing the deep touch pressure therapy compression garment worn by the six wearer children with Autism.

Psychometric properties of light touch-pressure somatosensory measures in adults with neurological disorders: A systematic review

Objectives To critically appraise the psychometric properties of light touch-pressure somatosensory assessments to provide guidance for tool selection for research or clinical purposes. Data sources MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PsycInfo were searched for research indexed from January 1990-November 2022. English language and human subject filters were applied. “Somatosensation”, “psychometric property”, and “nervous system-based health condition” search terms were combined. Grey literature and manual searches were conducted to ensure thoroughness. Review methods The reliability, construct validity, and/or measurement error of light touch-pressure assessments was reviewed in adult populations with neurological disorders. Reviewers individually extracted and managed data including patient demographics, assessment characteristics, statistical methods, and psychometric properties. Methodological quality of results was evaluated using an adapted version of the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments checklist. Results Thirty-three of 1938 articles were included for review. Fifteen light touch-pressure assessments demonstrated good or excellent reliability. Further, five of those 15 assessments achieved adequate validity and one of the 15 assessments achieved adequate measurement error. Over 80% of the summarized study ratings were determined to be of low or very low quality. Conclusion We recommend using electrical perceptual tests, the Semmes-Weinstein Monofilaments, the Graded and Redefined Assessment of Strength, Sensibility, and Prehension, and the Moving Touch Pressure Test given that they demonstrated good to excellent results in three psychometric properties. No other assessment achieved adequate ratings in more than two psychometric properties. This review highlights a fundamental need to develop sensory assessments that are reliable, valid, and sensitive to change.

EM-Skin: An Artificial Robotic Skin Using Magnetic Inductance Tomography

Physical sensing by touch is essential for building intelligent artificial systems in robotic manipulation and human-robotic interaction. Inductive skins are being investigated as part of a major effort to develop the most robust and reliable touch sensors, primarily based on traditional inductive proximity sensing. Magnetic induction tomography (MIT) is an imaging system considered for medical diagnostics and industrial process monitoring. This article presents a novel electromagnetic-based skin (EM-skin) using the MIT imaging system. This is done by processing the mutual inductance data from a planar array sensing a skin-like medium, including an elastomeric medium that interfaces the MIT sensors with plates of metallic or magnetic touch elements. The paper demonstrates EM-based multi-touch, dynamical touch, and quantitative touch pressure sensing. MIT data is captured at 10 frames/s, so allowing for dynamical touch analysis. The EM-skin sensing area of 900 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> demonstrates a large area of sensing skin. The results show the successful reconstruction of dynamical sensing, where two applied cyclic touch points, with different frequencies are discriminately detected. Quantitively force sensing shows the detection of a minimum of 120 mN force, which translates to 0.38 kP of applied pressure in the described system. Further force calibration is carried out demonstrating the quantitative nature of the proposed EM skin. These results will open the way to a new generation of distributed and reliable soft skins that are versatile due to material design and processing.

Relationship between physical activity level and plantar sensitivity, balance in postmenopausal women

This research was planned to investigate the relationship between physical activity level and plantar sensitivity, static and dynamic balance in postmenopausal women. Forty women between the ages of 50 and 65, who had not had a menstrual period for at least 12 months, and who had undergone menopause due to hormonal, surgical or natural means were involved in the research. International Physical Activity Questionnaires Short Form (IPAQ-SF) was used to assess the level of physical activity. Light touch pressure threshold on soles of the individuals and two-point discrimination sense were evaluated bilaterally from 6 different regions of the sole of the foot. Single leg and tandem stance tests were used for static balance assessment. Dynamic balance was evaluated with Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and Timed Up and Go Test (TUG). As a result of the statistical analysis, a negative correlation was found between the total physical activity level of the participants and the light touch pressure of the right big toe. There was a significant negative correlation between total physical activity level and left big toe, and the 1st and 5th metatarsal heads of the left foot. A significant negative correlation between total physical activity level and TUG test was detected. However, no significant difference between total physical activity and BBS, static balance tests was found. As a result of this research, it was concluded that the level of physical activity affects the light touch sense of big toes of both feet, and the 1st and 5th metatarsal heads of left foot. During this study, it was seen that if total physical activity level decreases, then the score of TUG can increase. Physical activity level and related factors should be examined with a larger number of samples.

Association of Lower Extremity Somatosensation Deficit with Balance and Gait in Sub-Acute Stroke Patients

Background: A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of your brain is interrupted or reduced, preventing brain tissue from getting oxygen and nutrients. There are three types of stroke ischemic stroke hemiplegic stroke and transient ischemic stroke. Objective: To determine the association of lower extremity somatosensory deficit in balance and gait in sub-acute stroke patients. Methods: Cross sectional survey was used in this study. The age group of participants was 40 to 75 years. Sample size was 204 calculated from Rao software and non-probability convenient sampling technique was used. Data was collected from Lahore General Hospital. Data was obtained from patient by applying distal proprioception test to assess the joint position sense. For the assessment of two point discrimination bolay gauge was used. The cutaneous vibration sensation was assessed through tuning fork. Soft goat hair brush was used to check the light touch pressure. For balance assessment berg balance scale and time up and go test was used. Gait was observed through Wisconsin gait index. Results: Mean value and standard deviation of age of participants were 62.99and 6.592 respectively. There was association of berg balance scale with two point discrimination test, light touch pressure and distal proprioception. There was no association between berg balance scale and vibration sense. Mean value and standard deviation of Wisconsin gait index was 23 and 4.986 respectively. Association between TUG and two point discrimination was found. There was no association of TUG with vibration sense, distal proprioception test and light touch pressure. Conclusion: This study concluded that balance was affected in sub-acute stroke patients due to the somatosensory deficit. Fall risk increased in the sub-acute stroke patient as the patients performance measured in time up and go test and berg balance scale. It was also inferred that while patients performing Wisconsin gait index scale, gait was affected in sub-acute stroke patients. Keywords: Balance, Gait, Sub-acute Stroke, fall risk, Somatosensory, Lower extremity