Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor

SENSORY SYSTEMS
1. General Principles of Sensory Transduction
• Adequate stimulus
• a specific stimulus that activates sensory
receptor(s)
e.g. Pacinian corpuscle
• Change in membrane conductance
• Generator potential
• Action potential
Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor
Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor
Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor
 Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor

A. Stimulus intensity and frequency of action

potentials
• frequency code of stimulus intensity:
FREQUENCY (%)
 stimulus intensity  generator potential 
frequency of action potential
 This allows the receptor to have a extreme
INTENSITY (%) range of response, from very weak to very
intense
• population code
More sensory receptors are activated as
stimulus gets greater
Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor
 Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor

B. Modality of sensation
• Each type of sensation (pain, touch, sound, etc.)
is called modality of sensation
• The quality of a stimulus is encoded by the
pathway of transmission
 Different modality of sensation is
transmitted by a specific nerve fiber and
determined by where the nerve fiber
terminates in the brain
• Labeled-line code principle
 The specificity of nerve fibers for transmitting
only one modality of sensation
 Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor

B. Mechanisms of adaptation
• can occur at the brain and the receptor
• sensory adaptation at receptor site
 Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor

1. Somatic Sensory System

A. Types of somatic sensory receptors
• tactile receptors (mechanoreceptors)
stimuli: touch, pressure, vibration
e.g. Pacinian corpuscle
hair receptor
Ruffini ending
Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor
 Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor

• thermal receptors
 stimuli: heat and cold
• nociceptors (pain receptors)
 stimuli: painful touch, cut, extreme
temperatures
• proprioceptive receptors
 detect position and movement
 static proprioceptors
- tonic discharge
 dynamic proprioceptors/kinesthesia
- phasic discharge
Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor
Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor
 Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor

 joint capsules
 muscle spindle receptors
• general principles for somatic sensory receptors
mediated transmission
 specificity
 cross-over of most pathways
 topographical organization
B. The dorsal root ganglion
• a cluster of cell bodies
• different size of nerve fibers
Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor
Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor
 Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor

 large fibers: D 13-22 m, glutamate as

neurotransmitters
myelinated, fast action potential
conduction: 70-120m/sec
 small fibers: D: 1-5 m, substance P as
neurotransmitters
unmyelinated, slow conduction of
action potential: 2-15m/sec
 two major pathways: dorsal column and
anterolateral
C. The spinal cord in somatic sensory function
• anatomy of the spinal cord
 Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor

 useful anatomic terms: rostro-caudal axis;

dorsal/ventral; medial/lateral; anterior/posterior
 transverse section: gray matter and white
matter
• segments of the spinal cord
 31 segments: 8 cervical (C1-C8)
12 thoracic (T1-T12)
5 Lumbar (L1-L5)
5 sacral (S1-S5)
1 sacro-coccygeal
 dermatomes
 lesions of the spinal cord
Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor
Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor
 Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor
D. The thalamus in somatic sensory function
• One of the brain areas that receives most types of
sensory information
• VPL receives somatic sensory information
E. The somatic sensory cortex
• somatotopic organization
F. Receptive field of neurons
• The area monitored by a single receptor cell is
called the receptive field for that cell
• The receptive fields differ in different parts of body.
 small in more sensitive areas like fingertips,
tongue (1 mm in diameter)
 large in less sensitive areas such as in the
back (7 cm)
 Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor

 Lateral inhibition
 Two-points threshold discrimination test
G. Pain sensation
• Pathway: anterolateral pathway
• Neurotransmitter: substance P
• Modification of pain sensation
 Brain stem
 Other sensory fibers (touch, pressure…)
 Higher brain center
 The gating theory
• Referred pain
Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor
Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor
Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor
 Lecture 3 Sensory/Motor

Referred pain. Nociceptors from

several locations converging on
a single ascending tract in the
spinal cord may cause referred
pain.