W2: Body Senses Flashcards
What are the different modalities of body senses?
Body Senses
Somatosensation (touch), proprioception (body position), kinesthesis (body movements), nociception (pain) and equilibrioception/vestibular sense (balance & spatial awareness)
What is the one body sense has different neural pathways and processing than the other body senses?
Body Senses
Vestibular sense (equilibrioception)
Somatosensation
Body Senses
‘Touch/haptics detects “physical properties” of a stimuli’s surface (e.g. texture and temp)
Very sensitive system - lips and finger tips most sensitive
Loss of touch is dangerous as hazardous surfaces will damage tissue without feeling it
^more unaware of kinesthesis and proprioception (loss is even more impairing)
Mechanoreceptors
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology
Are receptors that detect mechanical properties which contributes to somatosensation, proprioception, kinesthesis, nocioception and equilibrioception.
Tactile Receptors
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Mechanoreceptors
underneath the skin (+deeper) and sense pressure, vibration and stretch. ‘Each receptor structure reflects its “response to mechanical stimulation” and closes off nerve endings
Pacinian Corpuscles
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Mechanoreceptors: Tactile
onion appearance w/ fluid btwn layers - receptor response occurs when deformed from stimulation in the form of vibration - high freq response (250-350 Hz) to dynamic stimulation. Specialisation to higher thresholds (as location is deep under skin) - senses pressure and stretch of skin
Ruffini’s Corpuscles
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Mechanoreceptors: Tactile
respond slowly and to more stable stimuli. Specialisation to higher thresholds (as location is deep under skin) - senses stretch of skin
Merkel’s disks
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Mechanoreceptors: Tactile
respond slowly and to more stable stimuli. Specialised to light touch (low thresholds due to being right under skin)
Messiner’s Corpuscles
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Mechanoreceptors: Tactile
average temporal response (30 - 50 Hz). mod detects dynamic stimulation. Specialised to light touch (low thresholds due to being right under skin)
Proprioceptors
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Mechanoreceptors
“in muscles (muscle spindles), tendons, and joints mediating perception of body position (proprioception) and movement (kinesthesis).”
Muscle Spindles
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Mechanoreceptors: proprioceptors
‘4-8 specialised fibers encapsulated in tissue - sensory nerves axons connect to fibers to send info on muscle contraction (determined by distance between loops of spindles) and length - The more precisely and accurately a muscle needs to move, the more spindles it has’. Contraction spikes spindles activity.
Golgi Tendon Organs
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Mechanoreceptors: proprioceptors
activated by muscle tendon
Joint receptors
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Mechanoreceptors: proprioceptors
“respond to joint position”
Thermoceptors
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Mechanoreceptors
are free nerve endings embedded in skin which detect temperature. Combination of activity between the two fibers reflect the level of temperature
Warmth vs Cold Fibers
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Mechanoreceptors: Thermoceptors
indicate rise vs fall in temperature
Dorsal root ganglia
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Pathways
houses sensory neurons that convey neural responses from mechanoreceptors. Receptor potential travels along the axon and transfers down one of the following routes to the brain.
Spinothalamic Pathway
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Pathways
slowly transfers thermoreceptive signals from free nerve endings to thalamus and primary somatosensory cortex
Lemniscal Pathway
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Pathways
group of axons stop in spinal cord, others end in the brainstem -> send projections to the thlamus -> “thalamic neurons send axons to the primary somatosensory cortex for cortical processing”.
Mechanoreceptor axons are much faster (“conduction velocities = 20m/s) in this pathway as theyre myelinated (covered in plastic) - *why you feel contact of water drop before temp
The additional pathway for mechanoreceptors uses info independent of the brain and quickly sends it straight to the muscles for quick reflexes that remove us from hazards
Knee jerk reflex
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Pathways
each pathway projects to spinal cord for reflexes such as the knee jerk or “withdrawal from painful stimuli”
Microneurography
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Cortical Rep
using microelectrode to record different mechanoreceptors in nerves of arm or hand - fibers have different receptive fields across the hand
Primary Somatosensory Cortex
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Pathways
“The primary somatosensory cortex occupies a long, thin strip of cortical surface running from ear to ear across the head”
What are the brain areas involved in somatosensation?
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Cortical Rep
“The primary somatosensory cortex occupies a long, thin strip of cortical surface running from ear to ear across the head” - ‘thalamic axons project to Brodmanns area 3 and adjacent areas’
^broadmanns area 3 shows highly selective and organised neurons
Receptive field properties for somatosensation
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Cortical Rep
cells only respond to one receptor.
“Receptive fields cover small area of the body“ - areas overlap which allows you to maintain haptic sense across skin even if brain cells die
Brainstem and thalamus’ synapses of cortical cells connects to axes of neural projections
Cells are direction sensitive
*size of receptive field reflects size of body part
Center surround antagonism/ lateral inhibition
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Cortical Rep: Receptive Field Properties
Area A = receptive field that excites neural responses when stimulated
Area B = area surrounding receptive field that inhibits neural responses
Point where area A and B converge = no alterations to neural responses.
“the cell’s response is sensitive to very small changes in the position and/ or size of the stimulus.”
If area A and B are both stimulated = slight change of response
Cortical organisation of the somatosensory cortex
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Cortical Rep
(shaped like a headband from ear to ear) has high degree of order and organization reflected by high levels of processing. Receptor neurons project to the opposite hemisphere of brain.
Somatosensation: vertical organisation
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Cortical Rep: Organisation
6 layers which differ by “cell number, density and morphology”. Thalamic axons end in layer 4 of brodmanns area 3 to project cells to surrounding areas.
Somatosensation: cortical column
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Cortical Rep: Organisation
“A group of cells lying within a block extending perpendicular to the surface of the cortex that share a common response property, such as receptive field location or stimulus preference - therefore responding to the same receptor.” neighbouring cells receptive field locations overlap.
Somatosensation: somatotopic organisation
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Cortical Rep: Organisation
adjacent cortical areas reflect adjacent receptive fields/body parts. ‘“Neighbouring cells have closely related properties”.
Somatosensation: horizontal Organisation
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Physiology: Cortical Rep: Organisation
travelling horizontally across the somatosensory cortex “there is a very orderly progression in the part of the body covered by the neurons’ receptive fields.”
Somatosensation: Detection
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Perception
type of fibers present determines what frequency level of vibration that the receptor responds to - ‘fiber type reflects a “specialised channel” which conveys info about a specialised frequency range’ (4 channels - 4 fibers)
Somatosensation: Channels
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Perception: Detection
specified processing routes that carry specified information
Somatosensation: JND/Discrimination threshold
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Perception
between touch varies among different body parts.
Lowest threshold/JND on tongue and hands - discriminate between points 2-3mm apart
Highest threshold/JND on back and legs (50mm diff)
^reflects cortical magnification/representation and receptive field size
Somatosensation: Two point acuity
Body Senses: Somatosensation: Perception: discrimination
Testing discrimination of two points of pressure on the skin using 2AFC or yes/no procedure (intervals of one poke and two point poke to prevent participants bias) - increase distance between two points until discrimination threshold (usually getting it right after 75%) is established