Hairy skin: psychophysical channels and their physiological substrates.
Experiments were conducted in which threshold-frequency characteristics were measured on the hairy skin of the forearm of human observers. Thresholds were measured with two stimulus probe areas (2.9 and 0.008 cm2) at three skin-surface temperatures (15 degrees, 30 degrees, and 40 degrees C). The results suggest that whereas glabrous skin uses four distinct channels of information, only three channels may be involved in mediating the sense of touch for hairy skin. The three channels are defined as Ph, (Pacinian, hairy skin), NPh low (non-Pacinian, hairy skin, low frequencies) and NPh mid (non-Pacinian, hairy skin, middle frequencies). In addition, it is proposed that the neural substrates for the three psychophysically characterized channels are, respectively, the Pacinian corpuscle (PC) nerve fibers, the slowly adapting type II (SAII) fibers, and the rapidly adapting (RA) fibers.
Bolanowski
S J
SJ
Institute for Sensory Research, Syracuse University, New York 13244.
Gescheider
G A
GA
Verrillo
R T
RT
D000344:Afferent Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D005542:Forearm / Q000294:innervation; D006197:Hair / Q000294:innervation*; D006801:Humans; D008465:Mechanoreceptors / Q000502:physiology*; D009412:Nerve Fibers / Q000502:physiology; D010141:Pacinian Corpuscles / Q000502:physiology; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D012867:Skin / Q000294:innervation*; D012881:Skin Temperature / Q000502:physiology; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*; D014732:Vibration