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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.

Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex

Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex

The somatosensory cortex in the parietal lobes is crucial for interpreting sensory data such as touch, temperature, and proprioception. The somatosensory cortex, situated in the parietal lobes, plays a vital role in interpreting sensory information like touch, temperature, and proprioception—awareness of body position. This specialized brain region features an organized structure wherein neurons at the top primarily process sensations originating from the lower body. In contrast, those at the...

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...

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.
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The dorsal...

Parallel Processing

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The brain processes sensory information rapidly due to parallel processing, which involves sending data across multiple neural pathways at the same time. This method allows the brain to manage various sensory qualities, such as shapes, colors, movements, and locations, all concurrently. For instance, when observing a forest landscape, the brain simultaneously processes the movement of leaves, the shapes of trees, the depth between them, and the various shades of green. This enables a quick and...

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...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 11, 2026

Laser-scanning Photostimulation of Optogenetically Targeted Forebrain Circuits

Laser-scanning Photostimulation of Optogenetically Targeted Forebrain Circuits

Published on: December 27, 2013

Multiplexing stimulus information through rate and temporal codes in primate somatosensory cortex.

Michael A Harvey¹, Hannes P Saal, John F Dammann

¹Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.

|May 14, 2013

Summary

The brain encodes texture by processing fingertip vibrations. Amplitude is signaled by neuronal firing strength, while frequency is conveyed by precise spike timing in the somatosensory cortex (S1).

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Somatosensory Event-related Potentials from Orofacial Skin Stretch Stimulation

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Published on: December 18, 2015

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Somatosensation
Vibrational mechanics

Background:

Texture perception depends on processing complex fingertip vibrations.
The neural encoding of naturalistic vibrations in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) remains poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how vibratory amplitude and frequency are encoded in S1 neural responses.
To determine the role of neural spike timing in tactile perception.

Main Methods:

Single unit recordings from S1 neurons in awake macaques.
Perceptual judgments of texture and vibration by human subjects.
Analysis of neuronal firing rates and phase-locked responses.

Main Results:

Vibratory amplitude is encoded by the strength (rate) of S1 neuronal responses.
Vibratory frequency (up to 800 Hz) is encoded by the precise timing (phase-locking) of a subpopulation of S1 neurons.
Neural spike timing significantly influences tactile perception.

Conclusions:

Neural information about vibration amplitude and frequency is multiplexed in S1.
Amplitude is encoded in the rate coding, and frequency in the temporal patterning of neural responses.
Spike timing plays a crucial role in encoding tactile information and shaping perception.