Crude touch

Crude touch (or non-discriminative touch) is a sensory modality which allows the subject to sense that something has touched them, without being able to localise where they were touched (contrasting fine touch). Its fibres are carried in the spinothalamic tract.

As fine touch normally works in parallel to crude touch, a person will be able to localise touch until fibres carrying fine touch (Posterior column-medial lemniscus pathway) have been disrupted. Then the subject will feel the touch, but be unable to identify where they were touched.