cutaneous touch receptor

Examples of cutaneous touch receptor in the following topics:

• Classification of Receptors by Location

  • Some sensory receptors can be classified by the physical location of the receptor.
  • Receptors are sensitive to discrete stimuli and are often classified by both the systemic function and the location of the receptor.
  • Our skin includes touch and temperature receptors, and our inner ears contain sensory mechanoreceptors designed for detecting vibrations caused by sound or used to maintain balance.
  • While the cutaneous touch receptors found in the dermis and epidermis of our skin and the muscle spindles that detect stretch in skeletal muscle are both mechanoreceptors, they serve discrete functions.
  • In both cases, the mechanoreceptors detect physical forces that result from the movement of the local tissue, cutaneous touch receptors provide information to our brain about the external environment, while muscle spindle receptors provide information about our internal environment.

• Tactile Sensation

  • Touch is sensed by mechanoreceptive neurons that respond to pressure in various ways.
  • Cutaneous mechanoreceptors are located in the skin, like other cutaneous receptors.
  • They provide the senses of touch, pressure, vibration, proprioception, and others.
  • They are rapidly adaptive receptors.
  • Describe how touch is sensed by mechanoreceptive neurons responding to pressure

• Cutaneous Sensation

  • The somatosensory system is composed of the receptors and processing centers to produce the sensory modalities, such as touch and pain.
  • The somatosensory is the system of nerve cells that responds to changes to the external or internal state of the body, predominately through the sense of touch, but also by the senses of body position and movement.
  • While touch is considered one of the five traditional senses, the impression of touch is actually formed from several diverse stimuli using different receptors:
  • Mechanoreceptors are sensory receptors that respond to pressure and vibration.
  • The Merkel receptor is a disk-shaped receptor located near the border between the epidermis and dermis.

• Classification of Receptors by Stimulus

  • Sensory receptors can be classified by the type of stimulus that generates a response in the receptor.
  • During touch, mechanoreceptors in the skin and other tissues respond to variations in pressure.
  • Cutaneous receptors are sensory receptors found in the dermis or epidermis.
  • Encapsulated receptors consist of the remaining types of cutaneous receptors.
  • A tonic receptor is a sensory receptor that adapts slowly to a stimulus, while a phasic receptor is a sensory receptor that adapts rapidly to a stimulus.

• Sensory Modalities

  • The cutaneous somatosensory system detects changes in temperature.
  • Neurologists test this sense by telling patients to close their eyes and touch their own nose with the tip of a finger.
  • Proprioception and touch are related in subtle ways, and their impairment results in deep and surprising deficits in perception and action.
  • The three types of pain receptors are cutaneous (skin), somatic (joints and bones), and visceral (body organs).
  • It was previously believed that pain was simply the overloading of pressure receptors, but research in the first half of the 20th century showed that pain is a distinct phenomenon that intertwines with all of the other senses, including touch.

• Classification of Nerves

  • A-alpha fibers are the primary receptors of the muscle spindle and golgi tendon organ.
  • A-beta fibers act as secondary receptors of the muscle spindle and contribute to cutaneous mechanoreceptors.
  • The Schwann cell keeps them from touching each other by squeezing its cytoplasm between the axons.

• What is Skin?

  • The cutaneous membrane is the technical term for our skin.
  • Functions of the epidermis include touch sensation and protection against microorganisms. 
  • These signals include touch, temperature, pressure, pain, and itching.

• General Organization of the Somatosensory System

  • The somatosensory system is composed of the neurons that make sensing touch, temperature, and position in space possible.
  • It is responsible for sensing touch, temperature, posture, limb position, and more.
  • It includes both sensory receptor neurons in the periphery (eg., skin, muscle, and organs) and deeper neurons within the central nervous system.
  • In the periphery, the primary neuron is the sensory receptor that detects sensory stimuli like touch or temperature.
  • Periphery: Sensory receptors (i.e., thermoreceptors, mechanoreceptors, etc.) detect the various stimuli.

• Overview of Sensation

  • Traditionally, human beings are considered to have five main senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.
  • These receptors respond to changes and stimuli in the environment.
  • These receptors are used to detect the presence of smell.
  • Touch or somatosensation (tactioception, tactition, or mechanoreception), is a perception resulting from the activation of neural receptors in the skin, including hair follicles, tongue, throat, and mucosa.
  • The loss or impairment of the ability to feel anything touched is called tactile anesthesia.

• Proprioceptor Regulation of Breathing

  • These stretch receptors are mechanoreceptors, which are a type of sensory receptor that specifically detects mechanical pressure, distortion, and stretch, and are found in many parts of the human body, especially the lungs, stomach, and skin.
  • They do not detect fine-touch information like most sensory receptors in the human body, but they do create a feeling of tension or fullness when activated, especially in the lungs or stomach.
  • As the lungs deflate the stretch receptors are deactivated (and compression receptors called proprioreceptors may be activated) so the inhibitory signals stop and inhalation can begin again—this is called the deflation reflex.
  • The heart rate returns to normal during expiration when the stretch receptors are deactivated.
  • The vagus nerve is the neural pathway for stretch receptor regulation of breathing.