The effects of mechanical forces on the human body are of great interest to two groups of professionals: scientists who study neural systems involved in mechanosensation and clinicians who use force-based manipulationssuch as massage therapy, spinal manipulation, or acupunctureto treat health problems.

Unfortunately, despite their overlapping interests, these groups do not have many opportunities to talk to one another. Manual therapists and neuroscientists do not often go to the same meetings or read the same journals. And therefore, the potential for synergy between the fields of mechanosensation and manual therapies has been largely unexplored.