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Related Concept Videos

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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Tactile and Chemical Senses01:27

Tactile and Chemical Senses

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Tactile senses encompass touch, temperature, and pain, each mediated by specific receptors. Touch receptors detect mechanical energy or pressure against the skin. Sensory fibers from these receptors enter the spinal cord and relay information to the brain stem. Here, most fibers cross over to the opposite side of the brain. The touch information then moves to the thalamus, which projects a map of the body's surface onto the somatosensory areas of the parietal lobes in the cerebral cortex.
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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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Design Example: Resistive Touchscreen01:14

Design Example: Resistive Touchscreen

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A device engineer plays a crucial role in designing user interfaces for mobile devices. One such interface is the resistive touchscreen, which fundamentally consists of two metallic layers: a flexible upper layer and a rigid lower layer, separated by a narrow gap. The high resistance between these two layers is a key characteristic of this design.
When a user touches the screen, the two layers make contact at a specific point known as the touchpoint. This contact reduces the resistance between...
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Sensory Functions of the Skin01:16

Sensory Functions of the Skin

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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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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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A dedicate sensorimotor circuit enables fine texture discrimination by active touch.

Jie Yu1,2, Xuan Guo1,2, Shen Zheng1,2

  • 1School of Life Sciences, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

Plos Genetics
|January 17, 2023
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Summary

Fruit flies use active touch to explore food texture via specialized neurons. This sensory feedback guides proboscis movements, influencing food preference based on hardness, with mated females preferring softer foods.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Animal Behavior
  • Sensory Biology

Background:

  • Active touch is crucial for environmental exploration through self-generated movements.
  • Neural mechanisms for sensorimotor control in active touch remain largely unknown.
  • Drosophila utilize proboscis probing to assess food properties like texture and hardness during foraging.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify neural circuits involved in active touch-based food texture discrimination in Drosophila.
  • To elucidate how sensory feedback from active touch influences feeding behavior and food selection.
  • To investigate potential sex-specific differences in sensorimotor control related to food preference.

Main Methods:

  • Identification of mechanosensitive neurons (sd-L neurons) on the Drosophila labellum.
  • Analysis of synaptic connections between sd-L neurons, gustatory neurons, and motor circuits.
  • Behavioral experiments to assess food preference in response to varying food hardness and mating status.

Main Results:

  • sd-L neurons are mechanosensitive to labellum displacement and synapse onto sugar-sensing neurons.
  • These neurons induce a preference for harder food by modulating motor control of proboscis extension and labellum spreading.
  • Food hardness preference was abolished in mated female flies, suggesting a shift towards softer food requirements.

Conclusions:

  • A sensorimotor circuit involving mechanosensory, gustatory, and motor neurons enables active touch-based selection of food ripeness.
  • This circuit provides critical on-line sensory feedback for controlling food probing and ingestion.
  • Mating status influences food preference, highlighting adaptive changes in sensory processing and feeding behavior.