Touch and Temperature Senses

 

Charlie Drewes

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2005, Volume 26

Abstract

This investigation focuses on the sensory biology of human touch and temperature reception. Students investigate quantitative and qualitative aspects of touch-sensory functions in human skin. Values for two-point discrimination are compared to Weber’s original data. In addition, novel materials and methods are introduced for investigating the functional organization of cold sensory reception in human skin, including: (a) estimation of sensory field size for single cold-sensory fibers, (b) demonstration of the discontinuous distribution of cold-sensory fibers in skin, and (c) estimation of the density of cold-sensitive fibers per unit area of skin. Tactile and thermoreceptor functions are related to underlying neuroanatomy of peripheral and central neural pathways.

Keywords:  mechanoreception, sensory physiology, sensory perception, sensory discrimination, thermoreceptors, sensory fields

Bowling Green State University, Ohio (2004)