Function
Because of their higher conduction velocity, Aδ fibers are responsible for the sensation of a quick shallow pain that is specific on one area, termed as first pain. They respond to a weaker intensity of stimulus. C fibers respond to stimuli which have stronger intensities and are the ones to account for the slow, but deeper and spread out over an unspecific area, second pain.
C fibers are considered polymodal because they can react to various stimuli. They react to stimuli that are thermal, or mechanical, or chemical in nature.. C fibers respond to all kinds of physiological changes in the body. For example, they can respond to hypoxia, hypoglycemia, hypo-osmolarity, the presence of muscle metabolic products, and even light or sensitive touch. C fiber receptors include:
- C fiber nociceptors
- responsible for the second, burning pain
- C fiber warming specific receptors
- responsible for warmth
- ultra-slow histamine-selective C fibers
- responsible for itch
- tactile C fibers
- sensual touch
- C mechano- and metabo- receptors in muscles or joints
- responsible for muscle exercise, burn and cramp
This variation of input signals calls for a variety of cells of the cortex in lamina 1 to have different modality-selectiveness and morphologies. These varying neurons are responsible for the different feelings we perceive in our body and can be classified by their responses to ranges of stimuli. The brain uses the integration of these signals to maintain homeostasis in the body whether it is temperature related or pain related.
Read more about this topic: Group C Nerve Fiber
Famous quotes containing the word function:
“Literature does not exist in a vacuum. Writers as such have a definite social function exactly proportional to their ability as writers. This is their main use.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“Every boy was supposed to come into the world equipped with a father whose prime function was to be our father and show us how to be men. He can escape us, but we can never escape him. Present or absent, dead or alive, real or imagined, our father is the main man in our masculinity.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“Think of the tools in a tool-box: there is a hammer, pliers, a saw, a screwdriver, a rule, a glue-pot, nails and screws.—The function of words are as diverse as the functions of these objects.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)