Knowra Somatosensation Somatosensation Somatosensation is the nervous system’s detection and perception of stimuli from the body, including touch, pressure, pain, temperature, and body position.
Mechanoreceptor : A sensory receptor that responds to physical deformation such as touch, pressure, vibration, or stretch. These receptors convert skin deformation and tissue movement into neural signals.
Tactile perception : The perception of contact, texture, vibration, and other qualities of objects touching the body. It is the touch-related part of somatosensation.
Dermatome : An area of skin whose sensory input is supplied mainly by one spinal nerve root. Dermatomal patterns help localize spinal nerve-root injury from sensory changes.
Interoception : The sensing and interpretation of internal physiological conditions, such as heartbeat, hunger, and visceral stretch. It concerns internal bodily state, unlike somatosensation’s primary focus on skin, muscles, and joints.
Nociceptor : A sensory neuron or receptor ending that detects stimuli capable of causing tissue damage. Nociceptors initiate signals that the nervous system can interpret as pain.
Proprioception : The sense of the position and movement of body parts, derived from receptors in muscles, tendons, and joints. It supplies body-position information even without visual guidance.
Sensory homunculus : A distorted body map in the somatosensory cortex, with representation size reflecting sensory processing resources. It shows how cortical space is distributed unevenly across body regions.
Vestibular system : The inner-ear sensory system that detects head motion and orientation relative to gravity. It contributes to balance and spatial orientation rather than touch, pain, or body-surface sensation.
Thermoreceptor : A sensory receptor that responds to changes in temperature. Thermoreceptors provide information about warmth and cold at the body surface.
Nociception : The neural encoding and processing of potentially tissue-damaging stimuli. It is the sensory process underlying many, but not all, experiences of pain.
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