DetailsTouch is another one of the most important senses for humans. Touch is detected by many different receptors, and there are different pathways for temperature, position, movement, and pain. Somatosensory receptors, responsible for touch, are distributed in the skin to detect stimulus and send information to the brain.
Touch Fact SheetCheck out the fact sheet on touch on the left, provided by the Dana Foundation.
Somatosensory ReceptorsSensory receptors active in the touch pathways mainly include mechanoreceptors (detect vibration and pressure), nociceptors (detect pain), proprioceptors (detect position and movement), and thermoreceptors (detect differences in temperature). They have nerve endings in the skin and send signals to the somatosensory cortex.
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The Skin |
Touch Pathway |
The skin contains many nerve endings of different somatosensory receptors. Pain receptors are located close to the surface of the skin, along with small mechanoreceptors that detect gentle touch. Larger mechanoreceptors and receptors that detect pressure are located in the lower layers of the skin.
Additional ResourcesCheck out these links for more information about touch!
Lumen Learning: courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-biology2/chapter/somatosensory-receptors/ courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ap/chapter/the-somatosensory-system/ BrainFacts: brainfacts.org/thinking-sensing-and-behaving/touch/2020/the-neuroscience-of-touch-and-pain-013020 |
The somatosensory sytem consists of primary neurons, which detect sensory stimuli, secondary neurons (located in the spinal cord or brainstem), which connect primary neurons to the brain, and tertiary neurons, which project to the postcentral gyrus or somatosensory cortex in the parietal lobe. These tertiary neurons form a sensory homunculus, which is a map of the cortex with associated input from an area of the body.
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