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Related Concept Videos

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.

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...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 20, 2025

Assessing Corticospinal Excitability During Goal-Directed Reaching Behavior

Assessing Corticospinal Excitability During Goal-Directed Reaching Behavior

Published on: December 2, 2022

Dynamic temporal modulation of somatosensory processing during reaching.

Dimitris Voudouris¹, Katja Fiehler²

¹Department of Psychology, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Otto-Behaghel Strasse 10F, 35394, Giessen, Germany. dimitris.voudouris@psychol.uni-giessen.de.

Scientific Reports

|January 22, 2021

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Human sensorimotor control dynamically tunes somatosensory processing during reaching movements. Sensory feedback is suppressed early and late but enhanced at peak movement speed for optimal action.

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Last Updated: Nov 20, 2025

Assessing Corticospinal Excitability During Goal-Directed Reaching Behavior

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Published on: December 2, 2022

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Frame-by-Frame Video Analysis of Idiosyncratic Reach-to-Grasp Movements in Humans

Frame-by-Frame Video Analysis of Idiosyncratic Reach-to-Grasp Movements in Humans

Published on: January 15, 2018

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Motor Control
Somatosensation

Background:

Human action relies on integrating predictive feedforward control with real-time sensory feedback.
Predictive mechanisms often suppress sensory feedback during movement.
It remains unclear if this suppression is constant or dynamically adjusted.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether somatosensory processing is dynamically tuned during goal-directed reaching movements.
To determine if sensory feedback is enhanced at critical movement phases.

Main Methods:

Participants performed reaching movements without vision, detecting tactile stimuli on a moving or static hand.
Movement amplitudes were varied to alter the timing of maximal movement speed.

Main Results:

Somatosensory processing on the moving hand was suppressed early and late in the reach, but recovered around the time of maximal speed.
This temporal tuning of somatosensation was linked to movement dynamics.
Enhanced somatosensory processing on the moving limb coincided with processing on the target limb.

Conclusions:

Somatosensory processing is not constantly suppressed but dynamically tuned during reaching.
Sensory feedback is enhanced at critical movement moments, particularly around peak velocity.
This dynamic tuning supports optimal feedforward control strategies in human action.