Somatosensation

Lesson 17
 Somatosensation
 Sensory info from body
 Cutaneous senses

exteroceptors

touch / pain
 Kinesthesia

interoceptors

body position & movement ~
 The Cutaneous Senses
 Physical events next to organism

info about stimuli in direct contact

surfaces, objects, energy

body position
 Feedback critical for skilled movements

walking after foot falls asleep

talking after a shot of novocaine

no feedback from touch ~
 The Cutaneous Senses
 Primarily mechanical stimulation

Several types of receptors
 Several submodalities

Touch & pressure

Kinesthesis

Haptic System

Temperature

Pain ~
 Somatosensory Receptors
 Several types

mechanoreceptors

nociceptors

thermoreceptors

chemoreceptors

proprioceptors
 Transduction of environmental energy ~
 Mechanoreceptors
 Unmyelinated axon branches
 Free nerve ending

glabrous & hair regions

pain sensation
 Basket cells
Hairy regions ~
 Mechanoreceptors
 Encapsulated end organs
Glabrous (hairless) skin

Non-neural tissue

Merkel’s Disks

Meissner’s corpuscle

Pacinian corpuscles

Ruffini endings ~
~
 Receptor Adaptation
 Different rates of adaptation

 response to continued stimulation
 Slowly adapting (SA)

steady pattern of firing
 Rapidly adapting (RA)

fire only at onset of stimulus ~
 Somatosensory Pathways
 Touch & Proprioception

Dorsal column-medial lemniscal
pathway
 Pain and Temperature

Spinothalamic system
 Trigeminal pathway

face & neck

cranial nerve V, also others ~
 Spinal Cord
dorsal columns
Dorsal

lateral columns

Ventral
 Somatosensory cortex
 S1 - Postcentral Gyrus
 Somatotopic Organization

topographic representation of body
 Distorted Homunculus

disproportionate amount of cortex for
body parts

high sensitivity: large cortical area ~
 M1
PPC
S1
 Somatosensory Cortex
 Topographic representation

Body Image – S1

Space around us – PPC

Coordinates for movement
 Phantom limbs & pain

after amputation
 Contralateral neglect

PPC damage ~
 Kinesthesia
 Body Position & Movement

proprioception
 Joint information

Pacinian corpuscles & Ruffini endings
 Muscle & tendon information

changes in tension
Golgi tendon organ
muscle spindle fibers ~
 Cutaneous Receptors
 Stretching of the skin

Limited role in proprioception

Knee: anesthesia no affect

Mouth, hands, & feet proprioception
significantly reduced by anesthesia
 Ruffini Endings

slow adapting

population of neurons responding
simultaneously ~
 Muscle Receptors
 Major role in proprioception
 Stretch receptors

detect changes in tension
 2 types of receptors

Muscle spindles & Golgi tendon organs

differences in threshold & location ~
 Muscle-Spindle Receptors
 Muscle length detectors

Parallel with extrafusal fibers

Low threshold
 Monosynaptic stretch reflex

Postural adjustments

Muscle tonus
 Sensory neuron  alpha motor neurons

monosynaptic excitation

disynaptic inhibition ~
 Intrafusal Muscle Fibers
 Innervated by gamma motor
neurons

active concurrently with alpha
motor neurons
 Control tension on muscle spindles

Not force for movement

“Load the Spindles” ~
Dorsal

Gamma
Motoneuron
M
S

+
+

Ventral
 Golgi Tendon Organ
 Gauges muscle tension

high threshold
 Stretch receptor

safety mechanism

controlled muscle contraction ~
Dorsal

GTO

+
Inhibits alpha
motor neuron

-
+

Ventral
 GTO: Function
 Inhibits muscle contraction
 Control of motor acts

slow contraction as force increases

e.g., holding an egg
 Autogenic inhibition

safety mechanism

too much tension  damage ~