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Related Concept Videos

Somatosensation01:33

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.
Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System01:11

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...
Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex01:23

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...
Overview of Somatic Sensory Pathways01:29

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...
Major Somatic Sensory Pathways01:28

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...
Sensory Functions of the Skin01:16

Sensory Functions of the Skin

The skin is the largest organ of the human body and plays a crucial role in our sensory perception. It contains a vast network of sensory receptors that contribute to the skin's protective function by perceiving physical, biological, and environmental cues and generating relevant responses.
There are two main categories of receptors on the skin: capsulated and non-capsulated. The non-capsulated ones are mainly the pain receptors. The capsulated ones can be further categorized based on the...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 10, 2026

Testing Tactile Masking between the Forearms
08:05

Testing Tactile Masking between the Forearms

Published on: February 10, 2016

Neural coding during active somatosensation revealed using illusory touch.

Daniel H O'Connor1, S Andrew Hires, Zengcai V Guo

  • 1Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, Virginia, USA.

Nature Neuroscience
|June 4, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Mice perceive touch by integrating sensory input with movement signals. Instantaneous whisker position is not essential for object location discrimination during active touch, suggesting broader temporal integration.

More Related Videos

Imaging Neural Activity in the Primary Somatosensory Cortex Using Thy1-GCaMP6s Transgenic Mice
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Imaging Neural Activity in the Primary Somatosensory Cortex Using Thy1-GCaMP6s Transgenic Mice

Published on: January 7, 2019

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 10, 2026

Testing Tactile Masking between the Forearms
08:05

Testing Tactile Masking between the Forearms

Published on: February 10, 2016

Imaging Neural Activity in the Primary Somatosensory Cortex Using Thy1-GCaMP6s Transgenic Mice
07:04

Imaging Neural Activity in the Primary Somatosensory Cortex Using Thy1-GCaMP6s Transgenic Mice

Published on: January 7, 2019

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Sensory Perception
  • Motor Control

Background:

  • Active sensation relies on integrating external stimuli with internal body movement representations.
  • Understanding the temporal dynamics of neural activity during active touch is crucial for explaining perception.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the temporal interactions between whisker movement, neural activity, and the sensation of touch in mice.
  • To determine the necessity of instantaneous whisker position information for object location discrimination.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized mouse behavior, electrophysiology, and optogenetics.
  • Photostimulated layer 4 neural activity in barrel cortex in a closed loop with whisking.
  • Manipulated the timing of neural activity to assess its impact on perception.

Main Results:

  • Mimicking touch-related neural activity induced illusory object perception.
  • Scrambling spike timing within a whisking cycle did not abolish the illusion, indicating lack of need for instantaneous whisker position.
  • Illusions occurred only during directed whisking bouts and in relevant cortical barrels.
  • Reduced neural activity biased behavior, supporting a spike count code for object detection.

Conclusions:

  • Mice integrate touch coding with movement over whisking bout timescales for active touch perception.
  • Perception of object location during active touch does not strictly depend on real-time whisker position.
  • Neural processing of touch integrates movement context and temporal patterns over tens of milliseconds.