Somatosensation (Lecture 6) Flashcards
somatosensation
the “body senses”, deals with processing stimuli
3 separate but interactive systems of somatosensation
exteroceptive system
proprioceptive system
interoceptive system
skin
largest sensory organ, heaviest organ in the body, function is to prevent fluid from escaping, protection from dirt and pathogens, and report info about stimuli it comes in contact with
two types of skin
hairy and glabrous (hairless skin)
two layers of skin
epidermis and dermis
epidermis layer of skin
outermost layers, including several layers of dead skin cells
dermis layer of skin
inner layers, including matrices of glands, blood vessels, muscle, and hair
hypodermis layer of skin
layer of connective adipose tissue
mechanoreceptors
receptors that respond to mechanical stimulation such as pressure and stretching, change in conformation leads to opening of ion channels and membrane depolarization
4 basic types of mechanoreceptors
Meissner Corpuscles
Pacinian Corpuscles
Merkel’s Disks
Ruffini’s endings
Meissner Corpuscles
respond to light tapping (touch) and flutter, found on hairless skin (lips, fingertips, palms, nipples), small receptive field
Pacinian Corpuscles
respond to pressure and vibration, large receptive field (intestines and genitalia), located deep within dermis in both skin types
Merkel’s Disks
sensitive to fine detail and mechanical stimulation, small receptive fields (ridges of fingertips), located in outer layer of skin (epidermis)
Ruffini’s endings
respond to stretching of skin, proprioception, large receptive field, found on both types of skin (hairy and non-hairy)
touch information travels:
FAST (due to heavy myelination which increases speed of electro-transmission)
review: dorsal vs. ventral
dorsal= sensory ventral= motor
mechanoreceptor cell bodies are located in the:
Dorsal Root Ganglion (DRG)
sensory information enters the spinal cord through the:
dorsal horn
properties of the spinal nerves
there are 30 spinal nerves, each nerve has a dorsal root and a ventral root, enters spinal cord through notch in vertebrae
touch acuity
the ability to distinguish a separation between two closely adjacent stimuli applied to the skin, “two point” discrimination
touch information travels:
FAST (due to heavy myelination which increases speed of electro-transmission)
dermatome
the area of skin innervated by right and left dorsal roots of a single spinal segment
what happens to adjacent dorsal roots in innervation
adjacent dorsal roots slightly overlap in innervation
review: grey matter vs. white matter
grey matter contains cell bodies, white matter is myelination for axons