The importance of the sense of touch in virtual and real environments

What would be worse, losing your sight or your sense of touch? Although touch (more generally, somesthesis) is commonly underrated, major somesthetic loss can´t be adequately compensated for by sight. It results in catastrophic impairments of hand dexterity, haptic capabilities, walking, perception of limb position, and so on. Providing users with inadequate somesthetic feedback in virtual environments might impair their performance, just as major somesthetic loss does