Pacinian Corpuscle Flashcards
What is a pacinian corpuscle?
They are mechanoreceptors- they respond to mechanical stimuli such as pressure.
They occur deep in the skin and are most abundant on the fingers, the soles of the feet and external genitalia.
What do pacinian corpuscles contain?
The end of a sensory neurone- a ‘sensory neurone ending’, which is wrapped in loads of connective tissue called lamellae.
As with all sensory neurones, a pacinian corpuscle:
Is specific to a single type of stimulus- mechanical pressure.
It produces a generator potential by acting as a transducer- the role of which is to convert one form of an energy into another.
How does the pacinian corpuscle function?
When stimulated, the lamellae are deformed and press on the sensory nerve ending.
This caused deformation of stretch mediated sodium channels in the sensory neurone cell membrane.
The sodium ion channels open and sodium ions diffuse into the cell, creating a generator potential.
This, if threshold, triggers an action potential.
