1

Neural and Hormonal Control of

Human Systems

Lecture 1:
The Somatosensory system
(chapter 9)
 • Pain and temperature afferent fiber: 2
Enters the back of spinal cord (at cervical level) and will synapse
Ascends through the anterolateral system (named after its position: lateral and anterior to spine)
• Mechanosensory afferent fiber:
Same but ascends on the same side, will cross over higher up
Sensation entails the ability to transduce, encode, and ultimately perceive information
generated by stimuli arising from both the external and internal environments

Anterolateral
system

Somatosensory: allow conscious perception of touch, pain

FIGURE 9.1  Somatosensory afferents convey information from the
skin surface to central circuits. (A) The ____________
cell bodies of
somatosensory afferent fibers conveying information about the body
dorsal root ganglia that lie along the spinal cord;
reside in a series of ________________
Dorsal root ganglia:
Where the cell bodies those conveying information about the head are found primarily in the
Pseudounipolar neurons in the dorsal root
trigeminal ganglia. (B) _____________________
(soma) is located
for the sensory neurons ganglia give rise to peripheral processes that ramify within the skin (or
muscles or joints) and central processes that synapse with neurons
located in the spinal cord and at higher levels of the nervous system.
The peripheral processes of mechanoreceptor afferents are
encapsulated by specialized receptor cells; afferents carrying pain and
temperature information terminate in the periphery as free endings.
 3

From Sensation to Perception

 Survival depends upon sensation and perception
 Sensation: _______________________________________
Ability to feel something physically, especially by touching
Perception is the ___________________________________
Conscious interpretation of those stimuli
Awareness of the elements of environment through physical
sensation

• Start the coffee machine

The action of smelling something-> sensation
Knowing that it’s the smell of coffee -> perception
• Different areas of our brain are activated
such as the somatosensory cortex that will
receive the message and this message is sent to
other parts of the brain where it will be interpreted

Ex: Seeing the light (sensation) vs. determining its color (perception)
Ex: Hearing a sound (sensation) vs. perceiving the music being played (perception)
 4
Transduction in a mechanosensory afferent

• Pressing on the skin -> activating skin

receptors-> send action potential to the brain
where the signal is interpreted.
• Here you see the sodium channels are closed
-> no action potential -> no signal (ex: light
touch but so small that it isn’t felt) -> no
depolarization of the neuron

- Here you see it goes from a weak to a strong stimulus

The first image will you feel it? No because
It doesn’t reach threshold to generate an action potential

- The stimulus is stronger -> opens the sodium channels

-> generated action potential -> you will feel it
Does not generate enough AP  you will not feel it
Neuron that
goes from FIGURE 9.2  Transduction in a mechanosensory afferent. The process is illustrated
-90mv to a here for a Pacinian corpuscle. (A) _______________________
Deformation of the capsule leads to a stretching of the
more positive membrane of the afferent fiber, increasing the probability of opening mechanotransduction
value channels in the membrane. (B) Opening of these cation channels leads to ____________Depolarization
of the afferent fiber (receptor potential). If the afferent is sufficiently depolarized, an
_________________
Action potential is generated and propagates to central targets.
 5

Somatosensory Function and Receptor

Types

Beta

NOT IMPORTANT

• Touch and pressure transferred by beta fibers

• C fibers are slow compared to the others
 6
Receptive Fields and the two-Point
Discrimination Threshold
FIGURE 9.3  Receptive fields and the two-
point discrimination threshold. (A) Patterns
of activity in three mechanosensory afferent
fibers with overlapping receptive fields a, b, and
c on the skin surface. When two-point
discrimination stimuli are closely spaced (green
dots and histogram), there is a single focus of
neural activity, with afferent b firing most
actively. As the stimuli are moved farther apart
(red dots and histogram), the activity in
afferents a and c increases and the activity in b Diagrams showing the activity level in
decreases. each of the 3 receptive fields when
stimulated in various areas

At some separation distance (blue dots and histogram), the activity in a

and c exceeds that in b to such an extent that two discrete foci of
stimulation can be identified. This differential pattern of activity forms the
basis for the two-point discrimination threshold. Stimulation applied to the
center of the receptive field tends to evoke stronger responses than stimuli
applied at more eccentric locations within the receptive field.
 7
Receptive Fields and the two-Point
Discrimination Threshold

FIGURE 9.3  Receptive fields and the two-

point discrimination threshold. (B) The
two-point discrimination threshold in the
fingers is much finer than that in the wrist
because of differences in the sizes of
afferent receptive fields—that is,
___________________________________
The separation distance necessary to
____________________in
produce two distinct foci the population of
afferents innervating the lower arm is much
greater than that for the afferents innervating
the fingertips.
 8
Receptive Fields and the two-Point
Discrimination Threshold
Figure 9.3  Receptive
fields and the two-
point discrimination
threshold. (C)
Differences in the two-
point discrimination
threshold across the
surface of the body.
Somatic acuity is:
___________________
Much higher in the fingers,
toes, and face than in the
___________________
arms, legs or torso
___________________
___________________
 9
Sensory receptors
can be slowly or
rapidly adapting

A
What receptor do you
think is slowly adapting
A or B?
A
Because it stays on
when the pressure is on B

FIGURE 9.4  Slowly and rapidly adapting mechanoreceptors provide different

information. Slowly adapting receptors Continue responding to a stimulus whereas rapidly
_____________________________,
Only at the onset and offset of stimulation
adapting receptors respond _______________________________________. These
functional differences allow mechanoreceptors to provide information about both the ____
Static (via
slowly adapting receptors) and Dynamic
______ (via rapidly adapting receptors) qualities of a stimulus.
 Tactile Receptors & SensationsLocated superficially in the skin
10

Near the epidermis of the skin

 Meissner’s corpuscles:
__________________________ Makes them good at signaling light touch and
Light pressure
 Elongated encapsulated

nerve endings
 Located in the superficial

layers of the skin

(nonhairy part)
 _________________
Detect fine touch
 ___________________
Rapidly adapting receptors

 Merkel’s discs:
__________________________
 Located in the superficial

layers of the skin

(epidermis)
 ___________________
Detect touch and light pressure

 Slowly adapting receptors

_____________________
 Tactile Receptors & Sensations 11

 _____________________________________
Hair end-organ (free nerve endings of hair root):
Superficial

 In contact with the root of the skin hair

 Detects hair movement
 ______________________
Rapidly adapting receptors

 __________________
Ruffini’s end-organ:
 Encapsulated endings located in the deeper layers of the
skin
Location: Deep layer

 Detects heavy and prolonged touch and pressure signals

 ______________________
Slowly adapting receptors

 __________________
Pacinian corpuscles:
 Encapsulated endings located in the deeper layers
of the skin
 Detect tissue vibration or other rapid changes in the
mechanical state of the tissues (deep pressure, stretch)
 _____________________
Rapidly adapting receptors
 12
When reading braille you want the
Which receptor provides receptors that are superficial to the skin
the best representation of
the Braille pattern ?

Merkel cell
Answer: (touch and light pressure)

Each dot in the response

records represents an:
Each dot in the response records
represents an: ap from a single
mechanoreceptor

FIGURE 9.6  Simulation of activity patterns in different mechanosensory afferents in the fingertip. Each dot in the
response records represents an action potential recorded from a single mechanosensory afferent fiber innervating the
human finger as it moves across a row of Braille type. A horizontal line of dots in the raster plot represents the pattern of
activity in the afferent as a result of moving the pattern from left to right across the finger. The position of the pattern
(relative to the tip of the finger) was then displaced by a small distance, and the pattern was once again moved across the
finger. Repeating this pattern multiple times produces a record that simulates the pattern of activity that would arise in a
population of afferents whose receptive fields lie along a line in the fingertip (red dots). Only slowly adapting Merkel cell
afferents (top panel) provide a high-fidelity representation of the Braille pattern—that is, the individual Braille dots can be
distinguished only in the pattern of Merkel afferent neural activity. (After Phillips et al., 1990.)
 13

Clinical Applications: Dermatomes

 Definition:
_____________________________
An area of the skin supplied by nerves
From a single spinal root
_____________________________
 Dermatomes overlap
substantially, so that injury to an
individual dorsal root does not
lead to complete loss of
sensation; overlap is
More extensive for:
_____________________
Touch, pressure and vibration
Less extensive for:
______________________
Pain and temperature
 Clinical assessment of
dermatomes for Spinal Cord
Injured patients
 Light touch = feather
Pin prick = needle
ASIA Scale Motor Sensory
(key muscles) (key points)

Kinesiologists have access to this chart when working with SCI

patients (especially in rehab centers)
 Legs

Arms

Where do sensory fibers

decussate?
In the medulla

FIGURE 9.8  The main touch pathways. (A)

The dorsal column–medial lemniscal pathway
carries conscious proprioceptive and
mechanosensory information from the posterior
third of the head and the rest of the body.

3 neuron pathway -> if I pinch my big toe the signal will go through the DRG (where there is the soma)
to the medulla synapse with the Gracile nucleus and will cross in the medulla.
The second neuron will start up to the thalamus (neuron not as long as the 1 st). 3rd neuron from the
thalamus to the somatosensory
 Information sent the the VP com
Somatosensory portions of the thalamus
Before it is relayed to the somato

- Information supplied by
somatosensory receptors
is organized in the:
Ventro Posterior (VP)
_____________________
Complex of the thalamus
_____________________

-Ventral posterior lateral

(VPL) nucleus receives
Medial lemniscus
projections from: carrying
Somatosensory and conscious
_____________________
Proprioceptive info
_____________________
_____________________

- Ventral posterior medial

(VPM) nucleus receives
projections from the
trigeminal lemniscus
carrying info from the face
FIGURE 9.10  Somatosensory portions of the thalamus and their
cortical targets in the postcentral gyrus. The ventral posterior nuclear
complex comprises the VPM, which relays somatosensory information
carried by the trigeminal system from the face, and the VPL, which
relays somatosensory information from the rest of the body.
 Somatosensory in the parietal lobe
FIGURE 9.11  Somatotopic order
in the human primary
somatosensory cortex.
(A) Diagram showing the region of
In the parietal lobe
the human cortex (____________)
from which electrical activity is
recorded following mechanosensory
stimulation of different parts of the
body. (The patients in the study
were undergoing neurosurgical
procedures for which such mapping
was required.)

(B) Diagram showing the

somatotopic representation of body
parts from medial to lateral. (C)
Cartoon of the ______________
homunculus
constructed on the basis of such
mapping. Note that the amount of
somatosensory cortex devoted to
The hands and face
________________ is much larger
than the relative amount of body
surface in these regions.
 Brain Plasticity
-Reorganization of cortical
circuits:
-Immediately after lesion =
_________________________
Cortical region of digit 3=
_______________________
Unresponsive
-Few weeks after lesion=
unresponsive region became
responsive to stimulation of
neighboring regions of the skin:
_________________________
_________________________
Cortical neurons that formerly
_________________________
Responded to stimulation of
_____________________
Digit 3 responded to
stimulation of digits 2 and 4

FIGURE 9.14  Functional changes in the somatosensory cortex following amputation of a

digit. (A) Diagram of the somatosensory cortex in the owl monkey, showing the approximate
location of the hand representation. (B) The hand representation in the animal before amputation;
the numbers correspond to different digits. (C) The cortical map determined in the same animal 2
months after amputation of digit 3. The map has changed substantially; neurons in the area
formerly responding to stimulation of digit 3 now respond to stimulation of digits 2 and 4. (After
Merzenich et al., 1984.)
Brain Plasticity Brain can change with training

FIGURE 9.15  Functional expansion of a cortical representation by a repetitive behavioral

task. (A) An owl monkey was trained in a task that required heavy usage of digits 2, 3, and
occasionally 4. (B) The map of the digits in the primary somatosensory cortex prior to training. (C)
After several months of “practice,” a larger region of the cortex contained neurons activated by the
digits used in the task. Note that the specific arrangements of the digit representations are
somewhat different from those for the monkey shown in Figure 9.14, indicating the variability of the
cortical representation in individual animals. (After Jenkins et al., 1990.)
 
 VIDEO on Brain Plasticity
following a Stroke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9V3I30pn68