Unit Nine: The Nervous System: A.

General Principles and Sensory

Physiology
Chapter 47: Somatic Sensations. I.
General Organization, the Tactile and
Position Senses
Guyton and Hall, Textbook of Medical Physiology, 12
th
edition
Classification of Somatic Senses
Mechanoreceptic Somatic Senses- include both tactile
and position sensations stimulated by mechanical
displacement

Thermoreceptive Senses- detect heat and cold

Pain Sense- activated by factors that damage tissues
Other Classifications of Somatic Senses
Exteroreceptive Sensations- from the surface of the body

Proprioceptive Sensations- relating to the physical state
of the body (position, tendons, muscles, equilibrium)

Visceral Sensations- sensations from the internal organs

Deep Sensations- come from the deep tissues (fascia,
muscles, and bone)
Detection and Transmission of Tactile Sensations
Interrelaitons Among the Tactile Sensations of Touch,
Pressure, and Vibration- three principle differences

a. Touch sensation generally results from stimulation of
tactile receptors in the skin or s.c. tissues

b. Pressure sensation generally results from deformation
of deeper tissues

c. Vibration sensation results from rapidly repetitive
sensory signals


Detection and Transmission of Tactile Sensations
Tactile Receptors

a. Free nerve endings- found everywhere in the skin and in
many other tissues; can detect touch and pressure

b. Meissners Corpuscles- touch receptor with great sensitivity;
elongated, encapsulated nerve ending of a large myelin-
ated nerve fiber; present in the non-hairy areas of the skin
(i.e. the fingertips)



Detection and Transmission of Tactile Sensations
Tactile Receptors (cont.)

c. Merkels discs- expanded tip tactile receptor; transmit an
initially strong but partially adapting signal and then a
continuing weaker signal that adapts slowly; found in the
hairy parts of the skin; often grouped together in a Iggo
dome receptor




Detection and Transmission of Tactile Sensations
Tactile Receptors (cont.)

Fig. 47.1 Iggo dome receptor containing multiple layers of
Merkels discs connected to a single large
myelinated nerve fiber
Detection and Transmission of Tactile Sensations
Tactile Receptors (cont.)

d. Hair end organ- touch receptor around each hair;
movement and initial contact with the body

e. Ruffinis endings- multibranched encapsulated, adapt
slowly; prolonged touch and pressure sensations;
found in joint capsules

Detection and Transmission of Tactile Sensations
Transmission of Tactile Signals in Peripheral Nerve Fibers

Detection of Vibration

Detection of Tickle and Itch by Mechanoreceptors
Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Dorsal Column- Medial Lemniscal System

a. Touch sensations requiring high degree of localization
b. Touch sensations requiring transmission of fine
gradations of intensity
c. Phasic sensations, such as vibratory sensations
d. Sensations that signal movement against the skin
e. Position sensations from the joints
f. Pressure sensations related to fine degrees of
judgment of pressure intensity
Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Anterolateral System

a. Pain
b. Thermal sensations, both warm and cold
c. Crude touch and pressure
d. Tickle and itch sensations
e. Sexual sensations
Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Anatomy of the Dorsal Column

Fig. 47.2
Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Anatomy of the Dorsal Column

Fig. 47.3
Fig. 47.4
Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Somatosensory Cortex
Fig. 47.5 Structurally distince areas, called Brodmanns areas of the
human cerebral cortex
Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Somatosensory Cortex

a. Sensory signals from all modalities terminate just
posterior to the central fissure
b. Anterior half of the parietal lobe-reception and
interpretation of somatosensory signals
c. Posterior half of t he parietal lobe-provides still
higher levels of interpretation
d. Visual signals terminate in the occipital lobe
e. Auditory signals terminate in the temporal lobe
f. Anterior to the central fissure is the motor cortex
Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Somatosensory Areas I and II

Fig. 47.6 Two somatosensory cortical areas; I and II
Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Spatial Orientation of Signals from Different Parts of
the Body in Area I

Fig. 47.7 Sensory homunculus
Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Layers of the Somatosensory Cortex and Their Function-
contains six layers of neurons (#1 is next to the brain
surface)



Fig. 47.8
Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Layers of the Somatosensory Cortex and Their Function

a. Incoming sensory signal excites layer IV first; signal
spreads toward the surface and also deeper layers
b. Layers I and II receive diffuse nonspecific input signals
c. Neurons in II and III send axons to related portions of
the cerebral cortex and to the opposite hemisphere via
the corpus callosum
d. Neurons in V and VI send axons to deeper parts of the
nervous system

Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Sensory Cortex is Organized in Vertical Columns

a. Each column detects a different sensory spot on the
body with a specific sensory modality

Functions of Somatosensory Area I-bilateral excision
cause the following types of sensory judgement:

a. Person is unable to localize discretely the different
sensations in different parts of the body; can
localize the sensations crudely


Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Functions of Somatosensory Area I

b. Person is unable to judge critical degrees of pressure
against the body

c. Person is unable to judge the weights of objects

d. Person is unable to judge shapes or forms of objects

e. Person is unable to judge texture of materials

Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Somatosensory Association Areas

a. Brodmanns Areas 5 and 7- play an important role in
deciphering deeper meanings of the sensory information

b. Receives information from somatosensory area I, ventro-
basal nuclei of the thalamus, other areas of the thalamus,
visual cortex, and the auditory cortex

Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Overall Characteristics of Signal Transmission and
Analysis in the Dorsal Column- (lower part of Fig. 47.9)


Fig. 47.9 Transmission of a pinpoint stimulus
signal to the cerebral cortex
Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Two-Point Discrimination


Fig. 47.10 Transmission of signals to the
cortex from two adjacent
pinpoint stimuli
Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Effect of Lateral Inhibition- increases the degree of
contrast in the perceived spatial pattern

a. Virtually every sensory pathway, when excited, gives
rise simultaneously to lateral inhibitory signals

b. Importance of lateral inhibition is that it blocks the
lateral spread of excitatory signals and therefore,
increases the degree of contrast in the sensory pattern
perceived in the cerebral cortex

c. In the dorsal column lateral inhibition signals occur at
each synaptic level


Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Transmission of Rapidly Changing and Repetitive
Sensations- dorsal column can recognize changing
stimuli that occur in as little as 1/400 of a second

Vibratory Sensation- rapidly repetitive and can be
detected up to 700 cycles/second
Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Position Senses (Proprioceptive Senses)- two subtypes:
(1) static position sense, and (2) rate of movement
sense (kinesthesia or dynamic proprioception)

a. Knowledge of position depends on knowing the degrees
of angulation of all joints in all planes and their rates of
change

b. Multiple different types of receptors are used:

1. Deep receptors
2. Corpuscles
3. Muscle spindles, etc.



Sensory Pathways for Transmitting Somatic Signals into the CNS
Processing of Position Sense Information- thalmic
neurons responding to joint rotation are of two
types:

a. Those maximally stimulated when the joint is at
full rotation

b. Those maximally stimulated when the joint is at
minimal rotation
Fig. 47.12 Typical responses of five different thalamic neurons when the
knee joint is moved through its range of motion
Transmission of Less Critical Sensory Signals in the Anterolateral
Pathway
Anterolateral Pathway

a. Transmits sensory signals that do not require highly
discrete localization or discrimination of fine
gradations of intensity

1. Pain
2. Heat and cold
3. Crude tactile
4. Tickle and itch
5. Sexual sensations
Transmission of Less Critical Sensory Signals in the Anterolateral
Pathway
Anatomy of the Anterolateral Pathway

Fig. 47.13

Transmission of Less Critical Sensory Signals in the Anterolateral
Pathway
Characteristics of Transmission

a. Velocity of transmission is 1/3 of that of the dorsal column
b. Degree of spatial localization of signals is poor
c. Gradations of intensities are less accurate
d. Ability to transmit rapidly changing or repetitive
signals is poor
Transmission of Less Critical Sensory Signals in the Anterolateral
Pathway
Segmental Fields of StimulationDermatomes

See Fig. 47.14 in the text
Chapter 47: Somatic Sensations:
General Organization, the Tactile and Position Senses


Classification of Somatic Senses
Mechanoreception Somatic Senses- both tactile and
position sensations stimulated by mechanical
displacement.
Thermoreceptive Senses- detects changes in temperature.
Nociception (pain) Senses- detects tissue damage,
activated by release of pain-mediating molecules.