Biological Sciences
Pacinian Corpuscle
Pacinian corpuscles are sensory receptors found in the skin and other tissues of vertebrates. They are responsible for detecting deep pressure and high-frequency vibration. Structurally, they consist of a nerve ending surrounded by layers of connective tissue, which allows them to respond to mechanical stimuli. These specialized cells play a crucial role in the perception of touch and proprioception.
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10 Key excerpts on "Pacinian Corpuscle"
eBook - ePub- Charles Pidgeon, PhD, Sehej Bindra(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- MainspringBooks(Publisher)
0895/.Merkel discs are located in the upper layer of the dermis where they function to sense slow adapting light touch. The corpuscle’s nerve fiber is myelin ated.- What is a Pacinian Corpuscle and how does its structure aid its function?
Also known as the lamellar corpuscles, Pacinian Corpuscles are encapsulated mechanoreceptors which consist of an outer and inner lamella stacked on top of one another in an oval shape and separated by a fluid-filled space with one or more nerve endings innervating it. The outer lamella and the lamellar fluid acts as a filter that only allows the nerve endings to be stimulated with higher frequency vibrations rather than lower frequency vibrations, which are detected by other receptors such as Meissner’s corpuscles. Pacinian Corpuscles are located in the dermis and hypodermis layers, which is deeper than where Meissner’s corpuscles are generally found. This depth accounts for the function of Pacinian Corpuscles because they are responsible for the perception of pressure and vibration rather than fine touch. These types of stimuli are often significantly stronger than fine touch stimuli and would therefore be palpable to receptors located deeper in the skin. Inside these receptors are unmyelinated nerve endings responsible for the conduction of stimuli into an impulse. Once stimulated, they fire towards the postcentral gyrus in the brain, where the impulse is interpreted as a vibration or pressure.Takizawa, Peter. Pacinian Corpuscle , medcell.med.yale.edu/histology/skin_ lab/Pacinian_ corpuscle.php.Purves, Dale. “Mechanoreceptors Specialized to Receive Tactile Information.” Neuroscience . 2nd Edition., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Jan. 1970,Pacinian Corpuscles are located in the lower layer of the dermis where they detect vibration. The corpuscle’s nerve fiber is myelinwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10895/.
eBook - PDF- Barbara J. O'Kane, Laura C. Barritt, Barbara O'Kane, Laura Barritt(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Thieme(Publisher)
○ Pacinian Corpuscles are large, encapsulated, low- threshold mechanoreceptors located in the subcutaneous connective tissue of the skin, periosteum of bone, and some viscera. Pacinian Corpuscles rapidly adapt in response to high-frequency vibrations and produce the sensation of deep pressure and vibratory movements. ○ Paciniform corpuscles reside in joint capsules throughout the body and are structurally similar to the Pacinian Corpuscle. Paciniform corpuscles also rapidly adapt to deep pressure and vibratory movements associated with joint movement (▶ Fig. 11.10). ● In addition to encapsulated and nonencapsulated mechanoreceptors, the skin also contains numerous Ruffini corpuscle Merkel’s cells Free nerve ending in epidermis and dermis Pacinian body Epidermis Dermis Subcutaneous tissue Reticular layer Papillary layer Meissner’s tactile corpuscle Blood vessels Connective tissue Fig. 11.6 Schematic drawing of thick (glabrous) skin from palms and soles illustrating the location of cutaneous tactile mechanoreceptors within the dermis and hypodermis of the connective tissue. Tactile receptors in the superficial layer include free nerve endings, Merkel’s disc, a slow- adapting, nonencapsulated mechanoreceptor found in the basal layer of the epidermis, and Meissner’s corpuscle, a fast-adapting, encapsulated mechanoreceptor found in the dermal papilla. Merkel’s cells and Meissner’s corpuscle respond to light discriminative touch. Ruffini’s receptor, a slow-adapting, encapsulated receptor, is located in the deeper reticular layer of the dermis. Pacinian receptors are fast-adapting, encapsulated receptors located deep in the connective tissue at the dermal–hypodermal junction. Ruffini’s receptor detects heat and stretch in collagenous structures while the Pacinian detects transient deep pressure and high-frequency vibrations.
eBook - PDF- Tom Husband, Howard R Nicholls(Authors)
- 1992(Publication Date)
- World Scientific(Publisher)
The modified Pacinian Corpuscles are low threshold, fast adapting mechano-receptors. They are thickly encapsulated, smaller and simpler than those that are found in the skin. They are found in the fibrous layer of the capsule, in the loose connective tissue that is peripheral to the joint capsule, as well as the loose connective tissue between the joint capsule and the aponeuroses into which the muscles attach (the shearing spectrum (Strasmann et al, 1990)). Pacinian Corpuscles are present also in the aponeuroses themselves and in selected parts of the periosteum, along the long axis of the bone. These corpuscles serve solely as dynamic mechanoreceptors, becoming active at acceleration and deceleration (Ide, 1988; Johansson et ai, 1991; Strasmann & Halata, 1988; Strasmann et at, 1990; v.d.Wal et al, 1988). The presence of Golgi tendon organ-like endings in joint tissues may be debatable. They have been identified by some in collateral ligaments and intrinsic ligaments. They are thought to be high threshold, slowly adaptive mechanoreceptors that are completely inactive in immobile joints and most efficient when joints are in extreme positions, providing information about the tension in the ligaments (Johansson et al, 1991; Zimny, 1988a;b). Others have noted Golgi tendon organ-like endings only at the boundaries between muscle fibres and tendinous tissues, where one would ordinarily expect their presence (Strasmann et al, 1990). Their structure will be described below. The afferents of the joints appear to be capable of detecting noxious stimuli and of providing information about speed, acceleration, position and direction of movements. Nevertheless, the greatest density of the mechanoreceptors of the joints 142 Advanced Tactile Sensing For Robotics is in areas related to extremes of movement.
eBook - PDF- Peggy S. M. Hill(Author)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- Harvard University Press(Publisher)
sensory neuron. The lamellae and fluid in between act as a high-pass filter that may serve to screen out mechanical “noise” from the environ-ment. Because of this, Pacinian Corpuscles are considered fast adapting and do not respond to steady pressure, as such. However, they help to play a tactile role in hands and feet (and tails of prehensile primates) as they respond to the beginning and ending of a stimulus. Pacinian cor-puscles respond to frequencies in the range of 60–1,000 Hz, but the threshold for neural response is lowest for 200–300 Hz frequencies (McIntyre 1980). These receivers are found in joints and ligaments and in the interosseous membranes between forearm and lower leg bones, but also in muscle, in the abdominal cavity, and in skin. In addition, they have been found associated with the periosteum (the membrane covering bone) of the tibia in cats, where they are sensitive to vibration in the range of 50–800 Hz (Hunt 1961; Calne and Pallis 1966). Corpus-cles from the abdominal mesentery of cats had a similar frequency re-sponse and were anatomically identical to those in cat limbs (Sato 1961). Cutaneous Pacinian Corpuscles are often associated with footpads and have been found in the feet of most mammals, even in claws and hooves (Calne and Pallis 1966). Both Pacinian and Meissner’s corpuscles have been found in large numbers in the elephant trunk (O’Connell-Rodwell, Hart, and Arnason 2001; O’Connell-Rodwell et al. 2006). Recently, Pacinian Corpuscles in large clusters have been found in the dermis of the periphery of Indian elephant feet, with the greatest num-ber in the anterior region of the forefoot and the posterior region of the hindfoot (Bouley et al. 2007). Pacinian Corpuscles in the cat hindlimb were able to detect a low-amplitude vibration stimulus applied within an estimated distance of 5 cm (Hunt 1961). If the lamellae are removed from the terminus, the receptor ceases to be rapidly adapting.
eBook - PDF- Lawrence Kruger, Morton P. Friedman, Edward C. Carterette(Authors)
- 1996(Publication Date)
- Academic Press(Publisher)
One reason for this lack of knowledge is the receptors' inaccessibility for electro- physiological investigation while embedded in the skin. What is known regarding the transduction mechanisms of cutaneous mechanoreceptors has been derived primarily by studying Pacinian Corpuscles isolated from the messentery of the cat (e.g., Bolanowski & Zwislocki, 1984a, b; Loewen- stein, 1971). These corpuscles are anatomically (Chouchkov, 1971) and physiologically (Bolanowski & Zwislocki, 1984b) similar to those located within primate skin. It is likely that the mechanisms of transduction identi- fied for the Pacinian Corpuscle are relevant to the other tactile receptors (see Bell, Bolanowski, & Holmes, 1994, for a review of the structure and func- tion of Pacinian Corpuscles). When a mechanical stimulus is applied to a Pacinian Corpuscle, either 32 Joel D. Greenspan and Stanley J. Bolanowski through the skin or in vitro, the accessory capsule acts as a mechanical filter (Loewenstein & Skalak, 1966) transmitting the applied strain to the trans- ducing membrane. The strain induces hypothesized stretch-sensitive chan- nels to respond by increasing their conductance to certain ions, Na+ in particular (Diamond, Gray, & Inman, 1958), and possibly K+ (Akoev, Makovsky, & Volpe, 1980). This conductance increase produces the trans- membrane event known as the receptor potential at a very short latency (circa 0.2 msec from stimulus onset; Gray & Sato, 1953; Gottschaldt & Vahle-Hinz, 1981). Based on this short latency, the receptor potential can- not be mediated by neurotransmitters or other neuroactive substances po- tentially released by the surrounding accessory structure. If the receptor potential is of sufficient amplitude, an action potential will be generated and propagated along the peripheral axon to presynaptic endings within the CNS. The site of receptor-potential generation is likely to be different from the site of action-potential initiation (Gray & Sato, 1953).
eBook - PDF- E. Goldstein, James Brockmole(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
When you place your hands on mechanical devices that produce vibration, such as a car, a lawnmower, or an electric toothbrush, you can sense these vibrations with your fingers and hands. SA1 Receptor spacing (mm) Tactile acuity (mm) 10.0 8.0 6.0 4.0 2.0 0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 Base of finger Fingertip Palm Figure 14.9 Correlation between density of Merkel receptors and tactile acuity. (From Craig & Lyle, 2002) Table 14.1 Two-Point Thresholds on Different Parts of the Male Body PART OF BODY THRESHOLD (MM) Fingers 4 Upper lip 8 Big toe 9 Upper arm 46 Back 42 Thigh 44 Source: Data from Weinstein (1968). Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 345 Perceiving Vibration and Texture Vibration of the Skin The mechanoreceptor that is primarily responsible for sensing vibration is the Pacinian Corpuscle. One piece of evidence link- ing the Pacinian Corpuscle to vibration is that recording from fibers associated with the corpuscle shows that these fibers re- spond poorly to slow or constant pushing but respond well to high rates of vibration. Why do the Pacinian Corpuscle fibers respond well to rapid vibration? The answer to this question is that the presence of the corpuscle surrounding the nerve fiber determines which pressure stimuli actually reach the fiber. The corpuscle, which consists of a series of layers, like an onion, with fluid between each layer, transmits rapidly repeated pressure, like vibration, to the nerve fiber, as shown in Figure 14.11a, but does not transmit continuous pressure, as shown in Figure 14.11b.
eBook - ePubCarpenter's Neurophysiology
A Conceptual Approach
- Dunecan Massey, Nick Cunniffe, Imran Noorani(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
7Other fibres show only incomplete adaptation and can therefore signal static deformation as well: they come mostly from Merkel discs and Ruffini endings. The former are present in large numbers, and being close to the epidermis are ideally suited to providing information about light touch; the Ruffini endings, very similar to Golgi tendon organs, supply information about underlying tensions and stretch, and thus indirectly about joint position. Useful information has come from micro-electrode recording from afferents from the hand running in the medial nerve, in conscious human subjects, the particular advantage being that one can also perform micro-stimula-tion and see what the subject feels. One can demonstrate, for instance, that a single action potential in some of the fastest- adapting fibres is sufficient to evoke a sensation (see Table 4.1 ).8Responses from smaller afferents
The cutaneous fibres of groups A and C that are associated with light touch, pain and temperature, show response patterns that are a little more complex than those of the larger fibres. In thermoregulation we have already seen that, instead of having a group of receptors signalling absolute temperature, there are two separate populations (warm and cold), as each demands a different behavioural response. These fibres, of AS size, fire tonically at a rate that is a function of temperature, with a peak for warm fibres around 45°C and for cold receptors around 30°C (Fig. 4.21 ). Both also show incomplete adaptation: sudden warming of the skin results in a transient increased discharge of warm fibres, whose activity then settles down to a new level, while sudden cooling has the same effect on cold fibres. However, it appears that the cold receptors also respond transiently to warming above some 45°C, giving rise to the familiar sensation of paradoxical cold:
No longer available |Learn more- (Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
2 ) (Johansson & Vallbo, 1979). The density of RA and SA1 afferents decreases sharply as one proceeds proximally from the fingertips, whereas that of PC and SA2 afferents remains relatively constant. Note, however, that Pacinian receptors located in the palm of the hand and even in the forearm will respond robustly when the fingertips come into contact with an object (Delhaye, Hayward, Lefevre, & Thonnard, 2012; Manfredi et al., 2012; Westling & Johansson, 1987), so large numbers of PC afferents are recruited during interactions with objects, regardless of contact location. Indeed, these receptors are exquisitely sensitive to vibrations that propagate across the skin.Skin Mechanics and Afferent Branching
Forces applied to the skin's surface propagate through the tissue and produce stresses and strains at the locations of the receptors, which cause the membranes of their neurites to depolarize, ultimately evoking spikes in the associated nerve fibers. Because the stimulus propagates through the tissue before reaching the receptors, these only experience a distorted version of the stimulus: Certain features in the stimulus are enhanced while others are obscured simply due to skin mechanics (Dandekar, Raju, & Srinivasan, 2003; Phillips & Johnson, 1981b; Sripati, Bensmaia, & Johnson, 2006). Specifically, external corners and edges in the object are strongly enhanced because these exert more force on the skin's surface than do internal object features. Internal features are further obscured because they are filtered out as the forces exerted on the skin's surface propagate through the tissue because of the presence of adjacent features. From one perspective, skin mechanics are valuable in that they enhance edges and corners, a process that requires specialized neural machinery in the retina (namely lateral inhibition). On the other hand, the sense of touch is poor at conveying complex and fine spatial structure due in part to this mechanical filtering of the skin (Apkarianstielau & Loomis, 1975; Cho, Craig, Hsiao, & Bensmaia, 2016). This limitation can be overcome to some extent when the skin moves across a patterned surface (see the subsection “Texture” of the section “Tactile Coding in the Somatosensory Nerve”).
eBook - PDF- A. V. S. de Reuck, Julie Knight, A. V. S. de Reuck, Julie Knight(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
The psychophysical evidence is quite clear since the classical work of Geldard, which confirmed the earlier work of von Frey, that the lowest thresholds are at the touch spots of the skin and that thresholds of displacement may be as low as I pm. in glabrous skin and from 5 to 10 pm. in hairy skin for touch spots, beneath which Pacinian Corpuscles are m t commonly found. The other important point is that from the psychophysical work it seems that the skin is not an energy transformer; the frequency- threshold curve is flat from zero up to about 1,200 cyc./sec., although Geldard found that for short periods his subjects could sense vibration at delivered frequencies of up to 10,000 cyc./sec. At the moment, therefore, the Pacinian Corpuscle does not appear to be the receptor responsible for vibration sensibility, since the psychophysical evidence all suggests that the low-threshold dermal and epidermal mechano- receptors are responsible. It is also important to note that while human observers can discriminate a vibrating from a stationary stimulus to fairly high frequencies, the capacity to discriminate between different frequencies is very poor indeed. The differential is about 50 cyc./sec. at 200 cyc./sec. Above that, discrimination can hardly be made at all. Lindblonz: When glabrous skin was vibrated, the subcutaneous units followed the well-known pattern of Pacinian Corpuscles ; the further D I S C U S S I O N 1 s9 reason I have for believing the Pacinian Corpuscle to be concerned is that the intracutaneous touch receptors of the glabrous skin did not respond to h g h frequencies. Mountcastle: This may be so for the glabrous skin of the monkey foot with which you are working, but I could show you exactly the same records from the glabrous skin of the monkey hand, or from hair receptors, so that any rapidly adapting mechanoreceptor will behave in exactly that way.
eBook - PDF- Jonathan Stuart Citow, R. Loch Macdonald, Daniel Refai(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- Thieme(Publisher)
Touch, pressure, and vibration use the same receptor pathways. B. Position senses — static position and rate of movement senses C. Somatic sensory receptors 1. Free nerve endings — respond to pain, touch, and pressure 2. Meissner corpuscles — respond to touch. These are rapidly-adapting receptors located super fi cially in dermal papillae of non-hairy skin (e.g., fi ngertips, lips). They have small receptor fi elds and transmit signals via large, myelinated β -type A fi bers. 3. Merkel disks (i.e., expanded tip tactile receptors) — respond to touch and pressure. These are slowly- adapting receptors with small receptive fi elds, located super fi cially in the dermal papillae of hairy and non-hairy skin. Merkel disks typically group together to fi ll a single receptor organ underneath the epi-thelium, the Iggo dome receptor, which is innervated by a single, myelinated, β -type A fi ber. 4. Pacinian Corpuscles — respond to vibration (i.e., high-frequency stimulation). These are rapidly-adapt-ing receptors and are located in super fi cial and deep tissues. 5. Ru ffi ni end organs — respond to heavy touch and pressure. These are slowly-adapting receptors located in deep layers (i.e., subcutaneous tissue and joint capsules) and exhibit large receptive fi elds. 6. Hair end organs — respond to touch. These are rapidly-adapting receptors located at the base of hair follicles. D. Somatic nerve fi bers 1. Touch — mostly relayed by β -type A fi bers at speeds of 30–70 m/s. Free nerve endings also transmit touch sensations via myelinated δ -type A fi bers at speeds of 5–30 m/s and tickle sensations via unmy-elinated C fi bers at speeds of 62 m/s. Crude pressure, poorly localized touch, and tickle sensations are relayed via smaller, slower fi bers occupying less space in the nerve bundle. 2. Vibration — relayed by β -type A fi bers. All tactile receptors contribute, each at di ff erent frequencies (e.g., Pacinian Corpuscles at 30–800 cycles/s, Meissner corpuscles at 80 cycles/s).
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