Photoreceptors (purple) and bipolar cells (green) transmit to

ganglions (red).
📷 : Josh Morgan, Rachel Wong, Uni of Washington

PSY481 - Topics in Experimental Dicle Dövencioğl

Psychology: Perception for Cognition dicled@metu.edu.t
Cutaneous Senses + 👅👃 sense.psy.metu.edu.tr

Previously on PSY 481…

Acoustic signal
Articulators
Formants, vowels & consonants
Phonemes, Syllables, Words
Variability from Context
Variability from different Speakers
Categorical Perception
VOT & Phonetic Boundary
McGurk Effect
Aphasia
Dual-stream model of speech perception
Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Somatosensory System
The somatosenses provide information about what is happening on the surface of our
body and inside it.
Somatosensory system includes (1) the cutaneous senses, which are responsible for
perceptions such as touch and pain that are usually caused by stimulation of the skin; (2)
proprioception, the ability to sense the position of the body and limbs; and (3)
kinesthesis, the ability to sense the movement of the body and limbs.

The cutaneous senses (skin senses) include several submodalities commonly referred to
as touch.
Proprioception provide information about body position.
Kinesthesia provide information about body movement.
The organic senses arise from receptors in and around the internal organs.
Cutaneous sensory information is provided by specialized receptors in the skin.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Cutaneous Senses

Cutaneous senses respond to several different types of stimuli: pressure, vibration,

heating, cooling, and events that cause tissue damage (and hence pain).

Feelings of pressure are caused by mechanical deformation of the skin.

Vibration is produced in the laboratory or clinic by tuning forks or mechanical devices,

but it more commonly occurs when we move our fingers across a rough surface.

Sensations of warmth and coolness are produced by objects that raise or lower skin
temperature from normal.

Sensations of pain can be caused by many different types of stimuli, but it appears that
most cause at least some tissue damage.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

One source of kinesthesia is the stretch receptors found in skeletal muscles that
report changes in muscle length to the central nervous system.

Receptors within joints between adjacent bones respond to the magnitude and
direction of limb movement.

The most important source of kinesthetic feedback comes from receptors that
respond to changes in the stretching of the skin during movements of the joints or of
the muscles themselves, such as those in the face (Johansson and Flanagan, 2009).

Muscle length detectors, located within the muscles, do not give rise to conscious
sensations; their information is used to control movement.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

We are aware of some of the information received by means of the organic

senses, which can provide us with unpleasant sensations such as stomachaches
or gallbladder attacks, or pleasurable ones such as those provided by a warm
drink on a cold winter day.

We are unaware of some information, such as that provided from receptors in

the digestive system, kidneys, liver, heart, and blood vessels that are sensitive
to nutrients and minerals. This information, which plays a role in the control of
metabolism and water and mineral balance.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

The Skin
A complex and vital organ of the body—

We cannot survive without it; extensive skin burns are fatal.

Our cells are protected from the hostile environment by the skin’s outer layers.

The skin participates in thermoregulation by producing sweat, thus cooling the body, or
by restricting its circulation of blood, thus conserving heat.

Skin’s appearance varies widely across the body:

- mucous membrane
- hairy skin
- the smooth, hairless skin of the palms and the soles of the feet (glabrous skin).

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

The Skin

Glabrous skin is the hairless skin on the palms and soles of the feet.

Cutaneous receptors in this skin are involved with touching and exploring items in the
environment and in and manipulating objects.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

The Skin
The skin consists of subcutaneous tissue, dermis, and epidermis.

The layer of dead cells is part of the outer layer of skin and it is called the epidermis.

Below the epidermis is another layer, called the dermis.

These two layers have the mechanoreceptors,

receptors that respond to mechanical stimulation
such as pressure, stretching, and vibration.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Mechanoreceptors

Touch sensitive cutaneous receptors:

Merkel’s disk is important for the detection of form and roughness, especially
by fingertips.

Ruffini corpuscle is important in detecting stretching or static force against the

skin, and important in proprioception.

Meissner’s corpuscle important in detecting edge contours or Braille-like

stimuli, especially by fingertips.

Vibration sensitive cutaneous receptors:

Pacinian corpuscle important in detecting vibration from an object being held.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

The mechanoreceptors
The Merkel receptor and the Meissner corpuscle are located close to the surface of the
skin, near the epidermis.
The Merkel receptor fires continuously, as long as the stimulus is on; the Meissner
corpuscle fires only when
the stimulus is first applied and
when it is removed.

The type of perception associated

with the Merkel receptor is sensing
fine details,
and with the Meissner
corpuscle, controlling handgrip.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

The mechanoreceptors
The Ruffini cylinder and Pacinian corpuscle are located deeper in the skin.
The Ruffini cylinder responds continuously to stimulation, and the Pacinian corpuscle
responds when the stimulus is applied and removed.

The Ruffini cylinder is associated with

perceiving stretching of the skin,
the Pacinian corpuscle with
sensing rapid vibrations and
fine texture.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Summary

The skin

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Pathways to cortex
Nerve fibers from receptors in the skin travel in bundles called peripheral nerves that
enter the spinal cord through the dorsal root. The nerve fibers then go up the spinal cord
along two major pathways: 1) the medial lemniscal pathway and 2) the spinothalamic
pathway.
One is for sensing the positions of the limbs (proprioception) and perceiving touch, the
other for signals related to temperature and pain.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Somatosensory Cortex
From the thalamus, signals travel to the somatosensory receiving area (S1) in the parietal
lobe of the cortex and possibly also to the secondary somatosensory cortex (S2).
The somatosensory cortex is organized into maps that correspond to locations on the
body.

The homunculus
shows that some
areas on the skin
are represented by
a disproportionately
large area of the
brain.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Somatosensory Cortex
Somatotopic representation: The neurons in the primary somatosensory cortex are
topographically arranged, according to the part of the body from which they receive
sensory information.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Somatosensory Cortex
Somatotopic representation: The neurons in the primary somatosensory cortex are
topographically arranged, according to the part of the body from which they receive
sensory information.

Damage to the somatosensory

association cortex can cause
tactile agnosia, inability to
recognize common objects by
means of touch.

Tactile apraxia refers to difficulty

exploring objects with the fingers
(also related to motor system).

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Perceiving Details
Tactile acuity—the ability to detect details on the skin. The classic method of measuring
tactile acuity is the two-point threshold, the minimum separation between two points on
the skin that when stimulated is perceived as two points. The two-point threshold is
measured by gently touching the skin with two points, such as the points of a drawing
compass, and having the person indicate whether he or she feels one point or two.

Grating acuity is measured by pressing a grooved stimulus onto the skin and asking the
person to indicate the orientation of the grating. Acuity is measured by determining the
narrowest spacing for which orientation can be accurately judged.

Finally, acuity can also be measured by pushing raised

patterns such as letters onto the skin and determining
the smallest sized pattern or letter that can be identified.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Merkel receptor is sensitive to details. The Pacinian corpuscle is not sensitive to the
details of patterns that are pushed onto the skin.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

There is a high density of Merkel receptors in the fingertips. Is that all?

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

There is a high density of Merkel receptors in the fingertips. Is that all?
Although tactile acuity is better on the tip of the index finger than on the tip of the little
finger, the spacing between Merkel receptors is the same on all the fingertips.
This means that while receptor spacing is part of the answer, the cortex also plays a role in
determining tactile acuity (Duncan & Boynton, 2007).

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

By comparing the two-point thresholds to how different parts of the body are represented
in the brain (homunculus), we can see that regions of high acuity, like the fingers and lips,
are represented by larger areas on the cortex.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Perceiving Vibrations

The mechanoreceptor that is primarily responsible for

sensing vibration is the Pacinian corpuscle (PC).

One piece of evidence linking the PC to vibration is

that recording from fibers associated with the PC shows
that these fibers respond poorly to slow or constant
pushing, but respond well to high rates of vibration.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Perceiving Texture

When you touch an object or run your fingers over the object, you can sense textures
ranging from coarse (the spacing of the teeth of a comb) to fine (the surface of the page of
a book).

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Perceiving Texture
In 1925, David Katz proposed that our perception of texture depends on both spatial
cues and temporal cues.

Spatial cues are caused by relatively large surface elements, such as bumps and grooves,
that can be felt both when the skin moves across the surface elements and when it is
pressed onto the elements. These cues result in feeling different shapes, sizes, and
distributions of these surface elements.
e.g. a coarse texture such as Braille dots or the texture you feel when you touch the teeth
of a comb.

Temporal cues occur when the skin moves across a textured surface like fine sandpaper.
This cue provides information in the form of vibrations that occur as a result of the
movement over the surface. Temporal cues are responsible for our perception of fine
texture that cannot be detected unless the fingers are moving across the surface.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

The duplex theory of texture perception

There are two types of receptors involved in texture perception.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Perceiving Objects
haptic perception—perception in which three-dimensional objects are explored with the
hand.
Our cutaneous senses are used much more often to analyze shapes and textures of
stimulus objects that are moving with respect to the surface of the skin.

Haptic perception is an active process:

Our somatosenses work dynamically with the motor system to provide useful information
about the nature of objects that come into contact with our skin.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Perceiving Objects
When Susan Lederman and Roberta Klatzky (1987, 1990) observed participants’ hand
movements as they made these identifications, they found that people use a number of
distinctive movements, which the researchers called exploratory procedures (EPs) , and
that the types of EPs used depend on the object qualities the participants are asked to
judge.

People tend to use just one or two EPs to determine

a particular quality. For example, people use mainly
lateral motion and contour following to judge texture,
and they use enclosure and contour following
to judge exact shape.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Temperature
Feelings of warmth and coolness are relative, not absolute, except at the extremes.

Changes in temperature are detected by free nerve endings.

There are two categories of thermal receptors: those that respond to warmth and those
that respond to coolness.

Cold sensors in the skin are located just beneath the epidermis,
warmth sensors are located more deeply in the skin.

Information from cold sensors is conveyed to the CNS by thinly myelinated fibers, and
information from warmth sensors is conveyed by unmyelinated fibers.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Temperature

We can detect thermal stimuli over a very wide range of temperatures, from less than 8oC
(noxious cold) to over 52oC (noxious heat).

Some of the thermal receptors respond to particular chemicals as well as to changes in

temperature. For example, the M in TRPM8 stands for menthol, a compound found in the
leaves of many members of the mint family.

Menthol provides a cooling sensation because

it binds with and stimulates the TRPM8
receptor and produces neural activity that
the brain interprets as coolness.

Chemicals can produce the sensation of heat

also.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Temperature
Temperature receptors adapt to the ambient temperature;

moderate changes in skin temperature are soon perceived as neutral, and deviations above
or below this temperature are perceived as warmth or coolness.

Transduction of different ranges of temperatures is accomplished by six members of the

TRP (transient receptor potential) family of receptors.

One of the coolness receptors, TRPM8,

also responds to menthol and is involved in
responsiveness to environmental cold.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Pain
Painful stimuli are detected by free nerve endings.

Joachim Scholz and Clifford Woolf (2002) distinguish three different types of pain.

Nociceptive pain is pain caused by activation of receptors in the skin called nociceptors . There
are a number of different kinds of nociceptors, which respond to different stimuli—heat,
chemical, severe pressure, and cold.

Inflammatory pain is caused by damage to tissues and inflammations to joints or by tumor cells.

Neuropathic pain is caused by lesions or other damage to the nervous system. Examples of
neuropathic pain are carpal tunnel syndrome, which is caused by repetitive tasks such as
typing; spinal cord injury; and brain damage due to stroke.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Pain
There are at least three different types of pain receptors (nociceptors):

high-threshold mechanoreceptors; intense pressure, which might be caused by something

striking, stretching, or pinching the skin.

fibers with capsaicin receptors (TRPV1 receptors), which detect extremes of heat, acids,
and the presence of capsaicin;
play a role in regulation of body temperature.

fibers with TRPA1 receptors, which are sensitive to chemical irritants and inflammation.
e.g. mustard oil, tear gas

Itch is an unpleasant sensation conveyed by two different types of unknown receptors.

Pain and itch are mutually inhibitory: scratching reduces itching because pain suppresses
itching.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Pain perception is not a simple function of stimulation of pain receptors;

it is a complex phenomenon with sensory and emotional components that can be modified
by experience and the immediate environment.

The sensory component is mediated by the primary and secondary somatosensory cortex,
(pure perception of the intensity of a painful stimulus)

the immediate emotional component appears to be mediated by the anterior cingulate

cortex and the insular cortex, ( the unpleasantness or degree to which the individual is
bothered by the painful stimulus)

the long-term emotional component appears to be

mediated by the prefrontal cortex. (the threat that such
pain represents to one’s future comfort and well-being)

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Olfaction
The second chemical sense, helps us to identify food and avoid food that has spoiled and is
unfit to eat.

It helps the members of many species to track prey or detect predators and to identify
friends, foes, and receptive mates.

Although many other mammals, such as dogs, have more sensitive olfactory systems than
humans do, we should not underrate our own.

The olfactory system is second

only to the visual system in the
number of sensory receptor cells,
with an estimated 10 million cells.

anosmia - loss of sense of smell

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Olfaction
The stimulus for odor (known formally as odorants) consists of volatile substances.

Olfactory receptor cells lie in the olfactory epithelium that is located at the top of the
nasal cavity.
There is a constant production of new olfactory receptor cells, but their life is
considerably longer than gustatory
receptor cells.

Supporting cells contain

enzymes that destroy odorant
molecules and thus help to
prevent them from damaging
the olfactory receptor cells.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

Taste Perception
The stimuli interact with their receptors chemically.

Taste receptors detect only six sensory qualities: bitterness, sourness, sweetness, saltiness,
umami (The taste sensation produced by glutamate), and fat.

Bitter foods often contain plant alkaloids, many of which are poisonous.

Sour foods have usually undergone bacterial fermentation, which can produce toxins.

Sweet foods (such as fruits) are usually nutritious and safe to eat.

Salty foods contain an essential cation: sodium.

Umami, the taste of glutamate, identifies proteins.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

The tongue

The tongue, palate, pharynx, and larynx contain approximately 10,000 taste buds.
Most of these receptive organs are arranged around papillae, small protuberances
of the tongue.
Taste receptor cells form synapses with dendrites of bipolar neurons whose axons
convey gustatory information to the brain through the seventh, ninth, and tenth
cranial nerves.

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022

The tongue

The receptor cells lives for only ten days (hostile environment) As they
degenerate, they are replaced by newly developed cells; the dendrite of the
bipolar neuron is passed on to the new cell (Beidler, 1970).

Dövencioğlu, METU, Spring 2022