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Related Concept Videos

Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System01:11

Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System

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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...
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Somatosensation01:33

Somatosensation

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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.
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Overview of Somatic Sensory Pathways01:29

Overview of Somatic Sensory Pathways

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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...
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Major Somatic Sensory Pathways01:28

Major Somatic Sensory Pathways

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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...
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Vision01:24

Vision

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Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.
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Integration of Synaptic Events01:28

Integration of Synaptic Events

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Synaptic integration mainly includes the summation of graded potentials. Graded potentials, regardless of their type, cause subtle alterations in membrane voltage, resulting in either depolarization or hyperpolarization. These incremental changes, when combined or summed, can propel the neuron toward its threshold. Consider, for example, a membrane experiencing a +15 mV shift, causing it to depolarize from -70 mV to -55 mV. In this scenario, graded potentials govern the membrane's ability to...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 27, 2025

Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator TSPAS
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Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator TSPAS

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Orientation processing by synaptic integration across first-order tactile neurons.

Etay Hay1,2,3, J Andrew Pruszynski1,2,3

  • 1Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Western University, London, Canada.

Plos Computational Biology
|December 2, 2020
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Synaptic integration in tactile neurons enables precise edge orientation detection. This process, involving fast and slow synaptic inputs, is crucial for rapid and accurate tactile processing, supporting hand function.

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Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Nov 27, 2025

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Somatosensation
  • Computational Biology

Background:

  • Tactile sensation, vital for object manipulation, originates from first-order tactile neurons in the hand's glabrous skin.
  • These neurons possess complex, branching receptive fields due to innervation of multiple mechanoreceptors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how synaptic integration across first-order tactile neurons contributes to accurate and rapid edge orientation processing.
  • To model the computational mechanisms underlying tactile spatial acuity.

Main Methods:

  • Developed accurate spiking models of human first-order tactile neurons responding to moving edges.
  • Simulated the peripheral neuronal population innervating a fingertip using these models.
  • Trained classifiers to perform synaptic integration on simulated neuronal activity.

Main Results:

  • Synaptic integration across the first-order neuronal population can process edge orientations with high acuity and speed.
  • Fast-decaying (AMPA-like) synaptic inputs are critical for fine orientation discrimination.
  • Slow-decaying (NMDA-like) synaptic inputs support coarser orientation discrimination and robustness over time.

Conclusions:

  • Synaptic integration in the earliest tactile processing stages is key for precise hand function.
  • The interplay of different synaptic input types (AMPA/NMDA) underlies the dynamic range of tactile orientation processing.