Response of monkey glabrous skin mechanoreceptors to random-noise sequences: I. Temporal response characteristics

The response of slowly adapting (SA, Merkel cell), rapidly adapting (RA, Meissner), and Pacinian corpuscle (PC) mechanoreceptors in monkey glabrous skin were recorded while being activated with a vibrotactile indenting stimulus. For one set of experiments, the stimulator was driven by an 800-point (400-msec) pseudorandom-noise (PRN) sequence, repeated 40 times. For a second set of experiments, a non-repeating-noise (NRN) sequence was used. SA impulse patterns generated with the PRN sequence were highly regular and similar for all afferents tested. RA and PC response patterns were more varied, but exhibited basic intraclass similarities. SA and RA PRN stimulus impulse patterns were often nearly indistinguishable at low to medium discharge rates. At higher discharge rates, RA and SA discharge patterns differed, primarily because of the unambiguous suprathreshold velocity sensitivity and shorter recovery periods of RA afferents. PC impulse patterns were substantially different from SA and RA patterns, being clearly dependent on the stimulus velocity at all stimulus intensities. Input-output correlation analysis, coupled with PRN stimulus-response analysis, provided a basis for hypothesizing the basic dynamic encoder function of each type of mechanoreceptor.