Mechanoreceptors in the glabrous skin of the human hand.
Since the first systematic analysis concerning the functional properties of mechanoreceptors in the glabrous skin of the human hand was made in 1970, the amount of available data has grown tremendously. Whereas the first research in the seventies was aimed at achieving a standard functional description of the mechanoreceptors, research of the last two decades mostly has been directed towards developing a more detailed and extended model of these receptors. For example, recent investigations attempted to examine the role of populations of mechanoreceptors with respect to the recognition of texture and shape of an object touched by the human hand. Knowledge of the behaviour of the mechanoreceptive units in the glabrous skin of the human hand is especially relevant to people with a diminished or lost vision who depend on their tactile system to perceive objects they cannot hear or smell. This essay tries to give a brief overview of the development of this field from the first experiments on human beings to the state of knowledge that has been gained today.
Pasterkamp
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Department of Signals and Systems, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Twente, The Netherlands.
D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008465:Mechanoreceptors / Q000502:physiology*; D011434:Proprioception; D012879:Skin Physiological Phenomena