Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

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...

Perception

Perception

Perception is a fundamental psychological process that enables individuals to organize, interpret, and consciously experience sensory information. This process is crucial for understanding and interacting with the world around us. It includes both bottom-up and top-down processing, each playing a distinct role in how we perceive our environment.
Bottom-up processing begins at the sensory level, where receptors detect external environmental stimuli. These could include the tactile sensation of...

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.

What is a Sensory System?

What is a Sensory System?

Sensory systems detect stimuli—such as light and sound waves—and transduce them into neural signals that can be interpreted by the nervous system. In addition to external stimuli detected by the senses, some sensory systems detect internal stimuli—such as the proprioceptors in muscles and tendons that send feedback about limb position.

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.
The somatosensory system is divided into three main pathways: the dorsal (or posterior) column-medial lemniscus, spinothalamic (or anterolateral), and spinocerebellar pathways.
The dorsal...

Parallel Processing

Parallel Processing

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...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

The articulatory basis of phonological error patterns in childhood speech sound disorders.

Frontiers in human neuroscience·2025

Same author

Virtual Reality Portable Perimetry and Home Monitoring of Glaucoma: Retention and Compliance over a 2-year Period.

Ophthalmology science·2024

Same author

TORONTO: A trial-oriented multidimensional psychometric testing algorithm.

Journal of vision·2024

Same author

Improving the robustness of the Sequentially Optimized Reconstruction Strategy (SORS) for visual field testing.

PloS one·2024

Same author

Using Fused Data from Perimetry and Optical Coherence Tomography to Improve the Detection of Visual Field Progression in Glaucoma.

Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland)·2024

Same author

A Fundamental Inequality Governing the Rate Coding Response of Sensory Neurons.

Biological cybernetics·2023

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 14, 2025

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Published on: April 24, 2017

Consilience in the Peripheral Sensory Adaptation Response.

¹Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

|November 8, 2021

Summary

Peripheral sensory adaptation follows a geometric mean relationship, linking spontaneous, peak, and steady-state activities. This fundamental neurophysiology principle holds across diverse species and sensory modalities.

Keywords:

adaptation consilience peripheral sensory response spike frequency theoretical predictions

More Related Videos

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition

Published on: October 29, 2018

Automated Multimodal Stimulation and Simultaneous Neuronal Recording from Multiple Small Organisms

Automated Multimodal Stimulation and Simultaneous Neuronal Recording from Multiple Small Organisms

Published on: March 3, 2023

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Oct 14, 2025

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Published on: April 24, 2017

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition

Published on: October 29, 2018

Automated Multimodal Stimulation and Simultaneous Neuronal Recording from Multiple Small Organisms

Automated Multimodal Stimulation and Simultaneous Neuronal Recording from Multiple Small Organisms

Published on: March 3, 2023

Area of Science:

Neurophysiology
Sensory Neuroscience
Computational Neuroscience

Background:

Peripheral sensory adaptation is a fundamental neural process where sensory receptor response changes over time during constant stimulation.
Understanding the quantitative principles governing sensory adaptation is crucial for deciphering neural coding and information processing.
Previous studies have explored various aspects of adaptation, but a unifying mathematical principle has remained elusive.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate a simple mathematical relationship governing peripheral sensory adaptation.
To determine if this relationship is consistent across different sensory modalities and animal species.
To establish the fundamental nature of this neurophysiological principle.

Main Methods:

Quantitative analysis of peripheral sensory adaptation responses.
Comparison of spontaneous, peak, and steady-state neural activity measurements.
Extensive literature review of historical and contemporary neurophysiological studies.

Main Results:

A mathematical relationship based on the geometric mean accurately describes peripheral sensory adaptation.
This geometric mean relationship holds for sensory units exhibiting sustained responses to prolonged stimulation.
The relationship is independent of sensory modality and is observed across a wide range of animal species.

Conclusions:

The geometric mean relationship represents a fundamental principle in neurophysiology governing sensory adaptation.
This finding unifies nearly a century of experimental data, starting with Edgar Adrian's pioneering work.
The universality of this principle suggests deep-seated mechanisms in neural information processing.