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

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 Functions of the Skin

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...

Somatic Spinal Reflexes

Somatic Spinal Reflexes

Somatic spinal reflexes are rapid, involuntary muscular responses to external stimuli that involve the somatic musculature and the spinal cord.
One of the most well-known somatic spinal reflexes is the stretch reflex, which is activated by the sudden stretching of a muscle. This reflex involves the activation of specialized sensory receptors called muscle spindles, which are located in the muscle tissue and detect changes in the length and speed of muscle contractions. When a muscle is suddenly...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Interaction forces reflect the perception of texture during active exploration.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

Same author

Tactile localization of the breast, areola, and nipple.

eLife·2026

Same author

A framework for quantifying the mechanics of dexterous grasp.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

Same author

Overlap in neural representations of coordinated wrist and finger movements in human motor cortex.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

Same author

The coarse mental map of the breast is anchored on the nipple.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025

Same author

Biomimetic stimulation patterns drive natural artificial touch percepts using intracortical microstimulation in humans.

Journal of neural engineering·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 7, 2025

Measurement of Spatial Stability in Precision Grip

Measurement of Spatial Stability in Precision Grip

Published on: June 4, 2020

Proprioceptive sensitivity to imposed finger deflections.

Katie H Long^1,2, Kristine R McLellan³, Maria Boyarinova³

¹Committee on Computational Neuroscience, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

Journal of Neurophysiology

|January 12, 2022

Summary

Humans possess remarkable hand proprioception, accurately sensing finger joint position and movement. This sensory acuity, crucial for dexterity, appears to originate from muscles and tendons, not skin receptors.

Keywords:

angular acuity angular speed muscle spindles psychophysics

More Related Videos

A Simple Non-invasive Method for Temporary Knockdown of Upper Limb Proprioception

A Simple Non-invasive Method for Temporary Knockdown of Upper Limb Proprioception

Published on: March 3, 2018

A Tactile Automated Passive-Finger Stimulator TAPS

A Tactile Automated Passive-Finger Stimulator TAPS

Published on: June 3, 2009

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Oct 7, 2025

Measurement of Spatial Stability in Precision Grip

Measurement of Spatial Stability in Precision Grip

Published on: June 4, 2020

A Simple Non-invasive Method for Temporary Knockdown of Upper Limb Proprioception

A Simple Non-invasive Method for Temporary Knockdown of Upper Limb Proprioception

Published on: March 3, 2018

A Tactile Automated Passive-Finger Stimulator TAPS

A Tactile Automated Passive-Finger Stimulator TAPS

Published on: June 3, 2009

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Human Sensory Perception
Biomechanics

Background:

Hand proprioception, the sense of finger and wrist position/movement, is vital for manual dexterity and stereognosis.
Understanding proprioceptive acuity is key to understanding hand function and sensory integration.

Purpose of the Study:

To quantify the sensitivity of human index finger joints to changes in posture and movement speed.
To investigate the contribution of cutaneous versus non-cutaneous receptors to hand proprioception.

Main Methods:

Human subjects discriminated subtle changes in joint angle and speed around the three index finger joints.
Experiments isolated sensory input by imposing postures on a still hand.
The effect of a vibratory stimulus (potentially activating cutaneous receptors) on performance was assessed.

Main Results:

Subjects could detect 12-16% changes in joint angle and 18-32% changes in joint speed.
Proprioceptive acuity was consistent across the three index finger joints.
Vibratory stimuli applied to the skin did not alter performance in sensing joint position or movement.

Conclusions:

Humans exhibit high acuity in sensing finger joint posture and movement speed.
Proprioceptive sensitivity is primarily mediated by receptors within muscles and tendons, not superficial skin receptors.
These findings refine our understanding of the neural basis of fine motor control and object manipulation.