Sensory Physiology Pierce T#2 Flashcards
Describe Aalpha sensory fiber type.
Ia and Ib, they have a large diameter and fast conduction velocity 80-120
Describe Abeta sensory fiber.
Fiber type II
Describe Adelta sensory fiber type
Fiber type III
Describe C sensory fibers.
Fiber type IV small diameter and slow conduction velocity 0.5-2
What are the 4 motor fiber types?
Aalpha Agamma B C
What are the two types of skin?
Hairy skin or non hairy aka Glabrous
What is receptor adaptation?
When stimulus is constant over time the neural response diminishes and sensation is lost over time. It can be rapid adapting or slowly adapting.
What is the difference between slowly adapting and rapidly adapting receptors?
Receptors that respond to prolonged and constant stimulation are slowly adapting while receptors that respond only at the beginning or end of the stimulus are rapid and only active when stimulus intensity increases or decreases.
What happens to free nerve endings with diabetic neuropathy?
They begin to die off and retract into the dermis so they are no longer innervating the epidermal layers. You can easily damage the epidermis and not feel pain as a consequence.
What are the slowly adapting mechanoreceptors?
Ruffini corpusscle Merkel cell Tactile Hair follicle receptor
Rapidly adapting mechanoreceptors?
Meissners corpuscle or hair follicle receptor
Very rapidly adapting mechanoreceptors?
Pacininan corpuscle
What sensation is associated with a meissner corpuscle, where is it located and what type of receptor?
Touch and vibration flutter and tapping. It is a rapid adapting receptor located in glaborous skin.
Sensation, location and receptor type for pacinian corpuscle?
- Rapid indentation of skin with high frequency vibrations
- Located in hairy and glaborous skin
- rapid adapting receptor
Sensation location receptor type for ruffini corpuscle?
- Touch and pressure proprioception
- Found in glaborous skin
- slow adapting receptor
Merkel cell sensation, location, receptor?
- Pressure
- found in glaborous skin
- slow adapting
Hair follicle receptor sensation and receptor?
- Rapid and slow adapting
- detects motion across skin and directionality of it
Tactile free nerve ending sensation and receptor?
slow adapting and detects pain and temperature
What is a receptive field?
Areas of innervation where a mechanoreceptor fiber conveys information. Can be large or small.
How do you test the function of the receptive fields? Where is tactile acuity highest and lowest?
Through the 2 point discrimination test. There are prongs spaced specific amount of mm apart and you place it on patients skin and ask if they feel one or two prongs touching their skin. If you touch a single receptive field the person will only feel one prong. If you are touching two receptive fields the patient will feel two prongs. The finger tips and lips have the highest acuity as they have the smallest receptive fields. The calf back and thigh have the lowest tactile acuity as they have the largest receptive fields.
Where is the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), what does it do, what info does it receive?
Located in post central gyrus. It is the first stop for most cutaneous sensations. involved in integration of proprioception and size shape discrimination
Where is the secondary somatosensory cortex (S2), what does it do, what info does it recieve?
Located in wall of sylvian fissure receives input from S1 and has less detailed somatotopic representation than S1. It is involved in cognitive touch, compares btw objects, differnet tactile sensations and determs whether it becomes a memory.
What does the parieto-temporal-occipital association cortex do?
- High level of interpretation for sensory inputs
- Receives inpupt from multiple sensory areas
- Analyze spatial coordinates of self
- Names objects
What is phantom limb pain?
- Pain in a body part that is not actually there
- Law of projection is most basic principle to this
What is the law of projections?
No matter where along the afferent pathway a stimulation is applied the perceived sensation arises from the origin of sensation. Even if there is no longer X body part the pathway the sensation once took is still present and can be stimulated making the brain think there is pain in a limb that doesn’t exist.
What is pain?
Unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage