Modalities
With the above mentioned receptor types the skin can sense the modalities touch, pressure, vibration, temperature and pain. The modalities and their receptors are partly overlapping, and are innervated by different kinds of fiber types.
| Modality | Type | Fiber type |
|---|---|---|
| Touch | Rapidly adapting cutaneous mechanoreceptors (Meissner corpuscle end-organs Pacinian corpuscle end-organs hair follicle receptors some free nerve endings) |
Aβ fibers |
| Touch & pressure | Slowly adapting cutaneous mechanoreceptors (Merkel and Ruffini corpuscle end-organs some free nerve endings) |
Aβ fibers (Merkel and Ruffini's), Aδ fibers (free nerve endings) |
| Vibration | Meissners and Pacinian corpuscle end-organs | Aβ fibers |
| Temperature | Thermoreceptors | Aδ fibers (cold receptors) C fibers (warmth receptors) |
| Pain | Free nerve ending nociceptors | Aδ fibers (Nociceptors of neospinothalamic tract) C fibers (Nociceptors of paleospinothalamic tract) |
Read more about this topic: Cutaneous Receptor