Sensory - Touch Development

Introduction

Touch receptors in mammalian skin.

Skin Pacinian corpuscle

These notes introduce the development of the sense of touch, part of the somatosensory system. Because of the distribution of the sensory structures within the skin, this topic is generally also covered in integumentary development.

Links: Integumentary Development | Neural Crest Development | Neural System Development

Some Recent Findings

A Shift in Sensory Processing that Enables the Developing Human Brain to Discriminate Touch from Pain "When and how infants begin to discriminate noxious from innocuous stimuli is a fundamental question in neuroscience. However, little is known about the development of the necessary cortical somatosensory functional prerequisites in the intact human brain. ... The results suggest that specific neural circuits necessary for discrimination between touch and nociception emerge from 35-37 weeks gestation in the human brain." Identification of epidermal progenitors for the Merkel cell lineage "Epithelial stem cells in adult mammalian skin are known to maintain epidermal, follicular and sebaceous lineages during homeostasis. Recently, Merkel cell mechanoreceptors were identified as a fourth lineage derived from the proliferative layer of murine skin epithelium; however, the location of the stem or progenitor population for Merkel cells remains unknown. Here, we have identified a previously undescribed population of epidermal progenitors that reside in the touch domes of hairy skin, termed touch dome progenitor cells (TDPCs)."

Touch Receptors

Touch receptors in mammalian skin and the neural encoding of reception.

Pacinian corpuscle

• 

  Pacinian corpuscle (labeled)

• 

  Pacinian corpuscle (unlabeled)

• 

  Pacinian corpuscle (detail)

Meissner's corpuscle

Meissner's corpuscle

Abnormalities

Merkel cell carcinoma

References

Reviews

<pubmed>20956378</pubmed>| JCB

Books

Neurobiology of Sensation and Reward. Gottfried JA, editor. Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press; 2011. Chapter 7 - Touch PMID 22593916

Search PubMed

Search Pubmed: Touch Development | touch receptors |

External Links

External Links Notice - The dynamic nature of the internet may mean that some of these listed links may no longer function. If the link no longer works search the web with the link text or name. Links to any external commercial sites are provided for information purposes only and should never be considered an endorsement. UNSW Embryology is provided as an educational resource with no clinical information or commercial affiliation.

Terms

• Georg Meissner - (1829-1905) German histologist, physiologist and anatomist. Beiträge zur Anatomie und Physiologie der Haut. (Contributions to the anatomy and physiology of the skin.) Leipzig, 1853.
• Filippo Pacini - (1812-1883) Italian anatomist, published in 1840, and the name "Pacini's corpuscles" was proposed in 1844 by Henle and also by Kölliker.

Glossary Links

Glossary: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | Numbers | Symbols | Term Link

---

Cite this page: Hill, M.A. (2024, May 17) Embryology Sensory - Touch Development. Retrieved from https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/Sensory_-_Touch_Development

What Links Here?

© Dr Mark Hill 2024, UNSW Embryology ISBN: 978 0 7334 2609 4 - UNSW CRICOS Provider Code No. 00098G