An integrative framework of the skin receptors activation: mechanoreceptors activity patterns versus "labeled lines"

The paper presents a review of electrophysiological data which indicate the integrative mechanisms of information coded in the human and animal peripheral skin receptors. The activity of the skin sensory receptors was examined by applying various natural stimuli. It was revealed that numerous identical receptors respond to various stimuli (mechanical, temperature, and pain ones), but the spike patterns of these receptors were found to be specific for each stimulus. The description of characteristic structures of spike patterns in the cutaneous nerve fibers in response to five major modalities, namely: "touch", "pain", "vibration/breath", "cold", and "heat", is being presented. The recordings of the cutaneous physical state revealed a correlation between the patterns of spatiotemporal skin deformation and the receptors activity. A rheological state of the skin can be changed either in response to external temperature variation or by the sympathetic pilomotor activation. These results indicate that the skin sensory receptors activity may be considered as an integrative process. It depends not only on the receptors themselves, but also on the changes in the surrounding tissue and on the adaptive influence of the central nervous system. A new framework for the sensory channel system related to the skin is proposed on the basis of experimental results.