LABORATORY | PHYSIOLOGY | PT 100

BS Physical Therapy

SECTION V: GENERAL SENSES

▪ The sensory receptors of the skin are concerned
SENSATION
with at least 5 different senses:
▪ Stimulus-detecting process by which our sense
➢ pain
organs respond to and translate environmental
➢ heat
stimuli into nerve impulses that are sent to the
➢ cold
brain.
➢ touch
✓ Ex. touch, taste, sight, sound and smell
➢ pressure

PERCEPTION
SENSORY RECEPTORS
▪ Making sense of what our sense tells us
CHEMORECEPTORS
▪ Active process of organizing this stimulus input
and gives it meaning ➢ olfaction and taste sensations
ELECTROMAGNETIC RECEPTORS
➢ visual sensation
NOCICEPTORS
➢ pain sensation (mechanical,
thermal, chemical)
MECHANORECEPTORS
SOMATIC
PERIPHERAL INNERVATION DENSITY ➢ pressure, light touch, RECEPTORS

▪ Number of sensory receptors relative to the proprioception, hearing

location and area size of a certain body part THERMORECEPTORS
➢ temperature sensation (hot,
CORTICAL REPRESENTATION cold)

▪ A representation of a certain body part in a

certain area within the sensory (or motor)
homunculus of the cerebral cortex
▪ The skin contains of numerous sensory receptors
which receive information from the outside
environment
VARIATION OF SENSORY RECEPTORS
▪ Structure
➢ Pain receptors are UNMYELINATED
➢ Touch receptors form neuronal fiber nets
around the base of hairs
➢ Pressure receptors consist of nerve endings
encapsulated by specialized connective
tissue
▪ Abundance
➢ Pain receptors > cold receptors
▪ Concentration of the distribution

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SECTION V – GENERAL SENSES
SENSE OF TOUCH
▪ It is the most primitive and is a pervasive sense
✓ Fingertips, tongue and lips have the most
nerve ending
SUMMATION
▪ The bigger the body area/surface that is
immersed, the warmer the sensation felt.
▪ When a large area is stimulated all at once, the
thermal signal from the entire area summates. As
time goes by, the warm sensation decreases
ADAPTATION
▪ Characteristics of most sensory receptors in which
the generator potential or receptor potential
decreases in amplitude during a maintained,
constant stimulus.
▪ As a result, the frequency of nerve impulses in
the first order neuron also decreases during a
prolonged stimulus.
▪ Through this mechanism, the perception of a
sensation may fade or disappear even though
stimulus persist
TYPES OF ADAPTATION
▪ Adaptation by READJUSTMENT
➢ It occurs with the few hundredths of second
when the initial force distorts the structure of
a mechanoreceptor, then readjusts abruptly
▪ Adaptation by ACCOMMODATION
➢ occurs in the nerve fiber itself when there is
an inactivation of sodium channels in the
nerve fiber membrane
▪ Other types of adaptation:
▪ PHASIC (RAPID) ADAPTATION - pressure,
touch, smell
▪ SLOW ADAPTATION (TONIC) - pain, body
position, clinical composition of the blood
SECTION V – GENERAL SENSES
DEFORMATION
▪ In deeper tissues it is generally detected as
pressure sensations.
▪ Tactile receptors transmit signals in type AB
nerve fibers or type AC nerve fiber (fine
pressure) and in type C nerve fibers (crude
pressure).
- It then goes to the anterolateral system
(paired with the dorsal-column medial
lemniscal system), then up to Brodmann’s
Area 312
2-POINT DISCRIMINATION
▪ A frequently done method used to test the tactile
discrimination of a person.
▪ It is the ability to discern that two objects
touching the skin are truly two distinct points, not
one.
▪ Procedure: Two needles are pressed lightly
against the skin and the subject determines
whether two points of stimulus are felt or one
point
PERIPHERAL RECEPTIVE FIELD
▪ The area where a single tactile receptor is
assigned to transmit signals
▪ Fingers are more sensitive than nape due to the
difference in the number of specialized tactile
receptors
VIBRATION SENSE
▪ Vibrations in bony prominences are longer in
duration because bones are more compact.
- Also, bones have lamellated corpuscles that
detect higher frequency vibrations
- Due to the difference in structure, more vibration
is felt at the bony prominences than muscular
regions due to difference in the velocity of
mechanical waves travelling in them.
➢ High frequency vibrations (pacinian)
➢ Low frequency vibrations (meissners)
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SENSORY PATHWAY FOR VIBRATION
▪ Via the dorsal column medial lemniscal tract
▪ Receptors for vibration → post. Column (gracile
fasciculus and cuneate fasciculus) → 1st order
neuron → gracile nucleus and cuneate nucleus →
2nd order neuron → medial lemniscus →
thalamus → 3rd order neuron -> primary
somatosensory area of cerebral cortex
▪ Note: Vibration result from rapidly repetitive
sensory signals from tactile receptors
TACTILE LOCALIZATION OR TOPOGNOSIS
▪ Tests the ability to localize touch sensation on the
skin
▪ It examines the ability to identify the specific
point of application of a stimulus (e.g., tip of ring
finger, lateral malleolus and so forth) and not
simply the perception of touch
▪ Note: thickness and surface area of the body
parts affect tactile localization of these body
parts
SECTION V – GENERAL SENSES
MUSCLE & JOINT SENSES (PROPRIOCEPTION)
▪ Perception of motion and position of the body or
body segments in space. (Vandael et al., 2021)
▪ Test that examines joint position sense and the
awareness of joints at rest
➢ The sense of the relative position of body
segments in relation to other body segments.
▪ The unconscious perception of movement and
spatial orientation arising from stimuli within the
body itself.
▪ Proprioreceptors: Muscle spindle, GTOs, joint
receptors
▪ *with the disappearance of visual cues and the
disorientation at the semicircular canals
disequilibrium
KINESTHESIA
▪ It is the awareness of the position and movement
of the parts of the body by means of sensory
organs in the muscles and joints
▪ The extremity or joint is moved passively through
a relatively small range of motion (ROM). Small
increments in ROM are used as joint receptors
fire at specific points throughout the range
PAIN
▪ the subjective experience one feels as a result of
the activation of these pathways
NOCICEPTION (PAIN SENSATION)
▪ Refers to the central nervous system (CNS) and
peripheral nervous system (PNS) processing of
noxious stimuli, such as tissue injury and
temperature extremes, which activate
nociceptors and their pathways.
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THERMOCEPTION
▪ Temperature sensation is carried by specialized
sensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglia and
the trigeminal ganglia, which project their
terminals to both peripheral tissues (e.g. skin)
and the spinal cord in the central nervous system
(CNS)
▪ Receptors for temperature:
➢ RUFFINI’S ENDING → hot (at 45°C, heat
pain fibers are stimulated)
➢ KRAUSS-END-BULB → cold (at 0-10°C, cold
pain fibers are stimulated)

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SECTION V – GENERAL SENSES