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Somatosensation

Somatosensation

The somatosensory system relays sensory information from the skin, mucous membranes, limbs, and joints. Somatosensation is more familiarly known as the sense of touch. A typical somatosensory pathway includes three types of long neurons: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary neurons have cell bodies located near the spinal cord in groups of neurons called dorsal root ganglia. The sensory neurons of ganglia innervate designated areas of skin called dermatomes.

Overview of Somatic Sensory Pathways

Overview of Somatic Sensory Pathways

Somatic sensory or somatosensory pathways refer to the neural pathways that carry information related to touch, pressure, pain, temperature, and proprioception from the skin, muscles, tendons, and joints to the brain. These pathways involve several stages of processing and integration of sensory information.
The somatosensory system is divided into three main pathways: the dorsal (or posterior) column-medial lemniscus, spinothalamic (or anterolateral), and spinocerebellar pathways.
The dorsal...

Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System

Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System

The somatosensory system is the central and peripheral nervous system component that senses and processes touch, pressure, pain, temperature, and body position or proprioception. The process of sensation takes place at three levels:
The receptor level:
The receptor level is the first stage of sensation. It involves the detection of a stimulus by specialized sensory receptors. The stimulus must arrive within the receptor's receptive field. Next, the receptor converts the energy of the stimulus...

Thermosensation

Thermosensation

Peripheral thermosensation is the perception of external temperature. A change in temperature (on the surface of the skin and other tissues) is detected by a family of temperature-sensitive ion channels called Transient Receptor Potential, or TRP, receptors. These receptors are located on free nerve endings. Those detecting cold temperatures are closer to the surface of the skin than the nerve endings detecting warmth. These thermoTRP channels, while temperature selective, have relatively...

Major Somatic Sensory Pathways

Major Somatic Sensory Pathways

Sensory impulses related to touch, pressure, vibration, and proprioception from various body parts, such as the limbs, trunk, neck, and posterior head, travel to the cerebral cortex through the posterior column-medial lemniscus pathway. The pathway’s name derives from the two white-matter tracts that convey the impulses: the spinal cord's posterior column and the brainstem's medial lemniscus. First-order sensory neurons extend their axons into the spinal cord, forming the posterior columns...

Nociception

Nociception

Nociception—the ability to feel pain—is essential for an organism’s survival and overall well-being. Noxious stimuli such as piercing pain from a sharp object, heat from an open flame, or contact with corrosive chemicals are first detected by sensory receptors, called nociceptors, located on nerve endings. Nociceptors express ion channels that convert noxious stimuli into electrical signals. When these signals reach the brain via sensory neurons, they are perceived as pain. Thus, pain helps the...

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Related Experiment Video

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Chronic Constriction Injury of the Distal Infraorbital Nerve (DIoN-CCI) in Mice to Study Trigeminal Neuropathic Pain

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Altered somatosensory processing in trigeminal neuralgia.

Maria Blatow¹, Ernst Nennig, Elise Sarpaczki

¹Department of Neuroradiology, University of Heidelberg Medical School, Heidelberg, Germany. maria.blatow@med.uni-heidelberg.de

Human Brain Mapping

|April 15, 2009

Summary

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) patients show reduced brain activity in somatosensory areas. This suggests long-term changes in how the brain processes touch, even in non-painful areas, possibly as an adaptation.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Pain Research
Somatosensory Processing

Background:

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) involves facial pain, but its impact on non-painful somatosensory processing is unclear.
The somatosensory cortex processes both pain and tactile information, raising questions about altered function in pain states.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate alterations in primary (SI) and secondary (SII) somatosensory cortex activation in TN patients during non-painful tactile stimulation.
To compare brain activation between TN patients, surgically treated TN patients, and healthy controls.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity.
Non-painful tactile stimulation of lips and fingers was applied to 18 TN patients, 10 post-surgical TN patients, and 13 healthy controls.

Main Results:

Patients with TN exhibited significantly reduced SI and SII activation compared to controls, irrespective of the affected side or surgical status.
This reduction was more pronounced for finger stimulation than lip stimulation.
Thalamic activation did not differ between groups.

Conclusions:

TN is associated with a generalized reduction in SI and SII somatosensory processing.
These findings suggest long-term modulation of somatosensory function in TN patients, potentially as a cortical adaptation mechanism.