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& Perception
17 Somatosensation Touch
Heat/Cold Pain
Administrative stuff
The final
Friday, December 10th, 10.30 am -12.30 pm In HGS 101 Comprehensive, with an emphasis on things that havent been covered in previous exams. Like the midterms. Interpreting graphs, drawing diagrams, multiple choice and short written answers.
Auditory system
PostScript
Young adults are most sensitive for frequencies corresponding to human speech
Range of audible frequencies of several species at 60 dB SPL. No species covers the whole range.
Somatosensation
Touch Temperature Pain
Somatosensation
Touch Temperature Pain
c) Ruffini
d) Pacinian
RF
punctate (RA-P)
boundaries
structure
Large, fuzzy boundaries
long
Merkel Disk
(SA-P) Ruffini Ending (SA-D)
RF
Meissner Corpuscle
(RA-P) Pacinian Corpuscle (RA-D)
boundaries
structure
Large, fuzzy boundaries
Excitatory region
2 stimuli in excitatory regions, close together (both inhibiting and exciting each other)
Afferent touch fibers enter the spinal cord in the dorsal root. Some of the fibers synapse onto local inter-neurons which in turn synapse onto motor neurons, implementing a spinal reflex arc (like a withdrawal reflex)
Literally
Threshold/Homunculus Correspondence
The lower the 2-point threshold for a given skin region (= higher spatial resolution), the more relative space is devoted to cortical represenation/ processing of that region in somatosensory cortex. Roughly an inverse correlation.
Sidenote
Recently, the analogy between retinotopic mapping in vision and somatotopic mapping in somatosensation has come under fire. Critics of this model argue that there are many more body maps in the somatosensory cortices They also argue that the mapping is much more distributed and not somatotopic. Homunculus model too nice to be true.
By the way
Brodmann Areas 1,2,3 = Somatosensory cortex = S1, S2 =Postcentral gyrus =Postcentral cortex
Somatosensation
Touch Temperature Pain
Thermoreceptors
Thermoreceptors
Free nerve endings act as thermoreceptors There are separate classes of thermoreceptors: Cold fibers and Warm fibers Cold fibers respond to a decrease in temperature, while warm fibers respond to an increase in temperature. An individual fiber has a preferred temperature (exhibits a temperature tuning curve just like V1 neurons are tuned for orientation)
Thermoreceptors
Both cold and warm fibers dont respond to mechanical pressure. Preferred temperatures of cold fibers range from 20 C to 45 C, while preferred temperatures of warm fibers range from 30 C to 48 C. This response to a preferred temperature is a sustained response, it doesnt adapt like the additional increase/decrease response discussed previously.
Somatosensation
Touch Temperature Pain
Pain receptors
Free nerve endings in the skin They are connected to various fibers: A small, myelinated. High conductance speed C small, unmyelinated. Slow conductance speed
Pain receptors
A fast, sensitive to mechanical noxious stimuli. C slow, sensitive to many noxious stimuli (chemical, etc.) This distinction has been used to explain the phenomenon of double-pain: One noxious stimulus causes first a quick, sharp pain (mediated by A fibers) and is followed by a dull and burning pain (mediated by C fibers)
Pain pathways
Pain information also reaches the brain via the spino-thalamic tract. There are projections to the Somatosensory cortex and the Anterior cingulate cortex
The large fibers are under cognitive control. If they are active, they activate the substantia gelatonisa (sg) in the spinal cord. If the sg is active, the activity of T-cells is diminished. If the T-cells dont reach their activity threshold, no pain is experienced. If small fibers are active first, sg is inhibited, both fibers increase T-activity