08 27 2014 Somatosensory lecture Flashcards
somatosensory
touch pain temperature vibration proprioception
What are the main somatosensory pathways?
posterior column- medial lemiscal pathway
anterolateral pathway (including spinothalamic tract)
Trigeminal Lemniscus–touch and vibration information from face to cortex.
Trigeminothalamic tract– pain and temperature from face. (pathway descends 2 segments before turning and coming up).
Sensory Neuropathies–
Negative symptoms?
Analgesia - loss of pain
Anesthesia - loss of touch
“numbness, heaviness, weakness or deadness”
Sensory Neuropathies– Positive symptoms?
Paresthesias-- temporary mild pain Neuropathic pain/ central pain syndrome: -chronic intense pain - intense burning sensation interrupted by shooting, stabbing, or electric shock-like jolts. -treatment: anti-convulsants
Encoding of Elementary sensory:
- modalities
- Intensity
- Time
- location
What are the modalities of sensation?
- Touch/ vibration– pressure – cutaneous mechanoreceptor
- proprioception – detects displacement via a mechanoreceptor- muscle and joint sensation
- - muscle spindle and Golgi Tendon Organ (GTO) - Tempearture– thermal– thermoreceptor – cold and warm receptors
- Pain – chemoreceptor, thermoreceptor, mechanoreceptor – polymodal nociceptors, thermal nociceptors, and mechanical nociceptors.
Activation of cold receptor?
fire from 38 degrees C to 32 degrees C and below.
Activation of hot receptor?
fire from 32 degrees C to 38 degrees C and above.
Intensity?
Strength of stimulus – depends on threshold. We can control our own threshold – hot baking sheet and we refuse to drop it.
Timing? and two types of receptors?
receptors differ in the timing of responses to stimulus
- slowly adapting– fire quickly at first but then fire at a continuous and slow rate.
- -detect long/static quality of stimulus - Rapidly adapting– fire quickly at onset of stimulus but stop firing even though stimulus is still present
Location?
depends on receptor density, receptive field and inhibitory mechanisms affecting resolution.
Two point discrimination– minimal distance required to perceive two simultaneously applied stimuli as distinct.
receptive fields determine resolution
Receptive fields
region in sensory space that elicits greatest AP response to specific stimulus.
the smaller the field the better because…
Area surrounding receptive field inhibits cortical neurons to help create the boundary of a shape
= shuts up neighbors so stimulus can be better heard.
Name the cutaneous mechanoreceptors:
Free nerve endings Meissner corpuscles Merkel cell-neurite complex Ruffini corpuscle Pacinian corpuscle
Free nerve endings
nociceptors - located in epidermis
Meissner corpuscles
just below epidermis – touch
- rapidly adapting
Merkel cell-neurite copmlex
Tipe of epidermal ridge– detects shapes, edges, indentations
-slowly adapting