Neuroanatomy, Touch Receptor

Excerpt

The sensations of touch and pain get perceived by cutaneous low threshold mechanoreceptors (LTMs) in the skin. These cells convert tactile stimuli into membrane action potentials that then trigger neuronal action potentials. These LTMs can adapt and transmit sensations to sensory neurons, which project to the spinal cord at the dorsal horn to relay light touch or to the lateral spinothalamic tract to convey pain. For somatosensory perception, the LTMs lie within the dorsal root ganglia. The dorsal root ganglion neurons are pseudo-unipolar; one axonal branch goes to the periphery and the other synapses in the spinal cord. LTMs can have slowly adapting receptors for sustained indentation and rapidly adapting receptors that respond to the start and endpoint of indentation.