Types of Sensory Neurons
The different kinds of sensory stimuli that are picked up by sensory neurons are grouped into two categories: epicritic and protopathic.
Epicritic neurons detect gentle touch such as caresses; light vibrations; the ability to recognize the shape of an object being held; and two-point discrimination, or the spacing of two points being touched simultaneously.
Protopathic neurons are responsible for detecting pain, itch, tickle, and temperature. The different types of stimuli that are detected by a given receptor allow for a relative specificity between stimuli and receptor.
Read more about this topic: Cutaneous Innervation
Famous quotes containing the words types of, types and/or sensory:
“Our children evaluate themselves based on the opinions we have of them. When we use harsh words, biting comments, and a sarcastic tone of voice, we plant the seeds of self-doubt in their developing minds.... Children who receive a steady diet of these types of messages end up feeling powerless, inadequate, and unimportant. They start to believe that they are bad, and that they can never do enough.”
—Stephanie Martson (20th century)
“The rank and file have let their servants become their masters and dictators.... Provision should be made in all union constitutions for the recall of leaders. Big salaries should not be paid. Career hunters should be driven out, as well as leaders who use labor for political ends. These types are menaces to the advancement of labor.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)
“Our talk of external things, our very notion of things, is just a conceptual apparatus that helps us to foresee and control the triggerings of our sensory receptors in the light of previous triggering of our sensory receptors.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)