Search Wikipedia

Mechanoreceptor
Article Talk

For broader coverage of this topic, see Mechanosensation.

A mechanoreceptor, also called mechanoceptor, is a sensory receptor that responds to mechanical

pressure or distortion. Mechanoreceptors are innervated by sensory neurons that convert mechanical
pressure into electrical signals that, in animals, are sent to the central nervous system.

Contents

Vertebrate mechanoreceptors
Cutaneous mechanoreceptors
By sensation

By rate of adaptation

By receptive field

Lamellar corpuscles

Ligamentous mechanoreceptors

Other mechanoreceptors

Muscle spindles and the stretch reflex

Mechanism of sensation

Invertebrate mechanoreceptors

Plant mechanoreceptors

Molecular biology

See also

References

External links

Vertebrate mechanoreceptors

Cutaneous mechanoreceptors

Cutaneous mechanoreceptors respond to mechanical stimuli that result from physical interaction,
including pressure and vibration. They are located in the skin, like other cutaneous receptors. They are
all innervated by Aβ fibers, except the mechanorecepting free nerve endings, which are innervated by
Aδ fibers. Cutaneous mechanoreceptors can be categorized by what kind of sensation they perceive,
by the rate of adaptation, and by morphology. Furthermore, each has a different receptive field.

By sensation
The Slowly Adapting type 1 (SA1) mechanoreceptor, with the
Merkel corpuscle end-organ (also known as Merkel discs) detect
sustained pressure and underlies the perception of form and
roughness on the skin.[1] They have small receptive fields and
produce sustained responses to static stimulation.

The Slowly Adapting type 2 (SA2) mechanoreceptors, with the

Ruffini corpuscle end-organ (also known as the bulbous
corpuscles), detect tension deep in the skin and fascia and
respond to skin stretch, but have not been closely linked to either
proprioceptive or mechanoreceptive roles in perception.[2] They Tactile receptors.
also produce sustained responses to static stimulation, but have
large receptive fields.

The Rapidly Adapting (RA) or Meissner corpuscle end-organ mechanoreceptor (also known as the tactile
corpuscles) underlies the perception of light touch such as flutter[3] and slip on the skin.[4] It adapts
rapidly to changes in texture (vibrations around 50 Hz). They have small receptive fields and produce
transient responses to the onset and offset of stimulation.

The Pacinian corpuscle or Vater-Pacinian corpuscles or Lamellar corpuscles[5] in the skin and fascia
detect rapid vibrations of about 200–300 Hz.[3][6] They also produce transient responses, but have large
receptive fields.

Free nerve endings detect touch, pressure, stretching, as well as the tickle and itch sensations. Itch
sensations are caused by stimulation of free nerve ending from chemicals.[7]

Hair follicle receptors called hair root plexuses sense when a hair changes position. Indeed, the most
sensitive mechanoreceptors in humans are the hair cells in the cochlea of the inner ear (no relation to the
follicular receptors – they are named for the hair-like mechanosensory stereocilia they possess); these
receptors transduce sound for the brain.[7]
By rate of adaptation

Cutaneous mechanoreceptors can also be separated into categories based on their rates of
adaptation. When a mechanoreceptor receives a stimulus, it begins to fire impulses or action
potentials at an elevated frequency (the stronger the stimulus, the higher the frequency). The cell,
however, will soon "adapt" to a constant or static stimulus, and the pulses will subside to a normal
rate. Receptors that adapt quickly (i.e., quickly return to a normal pulse rate) are referred to as
"phasic". Those receptors that are slow to return to their normal firing rate are called tonic. Phasic
mechanoreceptors are useful in sensing such things as texture or vibrations, whereas tonic receptors
are useful for temperature and proprioception among others.

Slowly adapting: Slowly adapting mechanoreceptors include Merkel and Ruffini corpuscle end-organs,
and some free nerve endings.
Slowly adapting type I mechanoreceptors have multiple Merkel corpuscle end-organs.

Slowly adapting type II mechanoreceptors have single Ruffini corpuscle end-organs.

Intermediate adapting: Some free nerve endings are intermediate adapting.

Rapidly adapting: Rapidly adapting mechanoreceptors include Meissner corpuscle end-organs, Pacinian
corpuscle end-organs, hair follicle receptors and some free nerve endings.
Rapidly adapting type I mechanoreceptors have multiple Meissner corpuscle end-organs.

Rapidly adapting type II mechanoreceptors (usually called Pacinian) have single Pacinian corpuscle
end-organs.
By receptive field

Cutaneous mechanoreceptors with small, accurate receptive fields are found in areas needing
accurate taction (e.g. the fingertips). In the fingertips and lips, innervation density of slowly adapting
type I and rapidly adapting type I mechanoreceptors are greatly increased. These two types of
mechanoreceptors have small discrete receptive fields and are thought to underlie most low-threshold
use of the fingers in assessing texture, surface slip, and flutter. Mechanoreceptors found in areas of
the body with less tactile acuity tend to have larger receptive fields.

Lamellar corpuscles

Lamellar corpuscles, or Pacinian corpuscles or Vater-Pacini corpuscle, are deformation or pressure

receptors located in the skin and also in various internal organs.[8] Each is connected to a sensory
neuron. Because of its relatively large size, a single lamellar corpuscle can be isolated and its
properties studied. Mechanical pressure of varying strength and frequency can be applied to the
corpuscle by stylus, and the resulting electrical activity detected by electrodes attached to the
preparation.

Deforming the corpuscle creates a generator potential in the sensory neuron arising within it. This is a
graded response: the greater the deformation, the greater the generator potential. If the generator
potential reaches threshold, a volley of action potentials (nerve impulses) are triggered at the first
node of Ranvier of the sensory neuron.

Once threshold is reached, the magnitude of the stimulus is encoded in the frequency of impulses
generated in the neuron. So the more massive or rapid the deformation of a single corpuscle, the
higher the frequency of nerve impulses generated in its neuron.

The optimal sensitivity of a lamellar corpuscle is 250 Hz, the frequency range generated upon finger
tips by textures made of features smaller than 200 micrometres.[9]

Ligamentous mechanoreceptors

There are four types of mechanoreceptors embedded in ligaments. As all these types of
mechanoreceptors are myelinated, they can rapidly transmit sensory information regarding joint
positions to the central nervous system.[10]

Type I: (small) Low threshold, slow adapting in both static and dynamic settings

Type II: (medium) Low threshold, rapidly adapting in dynamic settings

Type III: (large) High threshold, slowly adapting in dynamic settings

Type IV: (very small) High threshold pain receptors that communicate injury

Type II and Type III mechanoreceptors in particular are believed to be linked to one's sense of
proprioception.

Other mechanoreceptors

Other mechanoreceptors than cutaneous ones include the hair cells, which are sensory receptors in
the vestibular system of the inner ear, where they contribute to the auditory system and
equilibrioception. Baroreceptors are a type of mechanoreceptor sensory neuron that is excited by
stretch of the blood vessel. There are also juxtacapillary (J) receptors, which respond to events such
as pulmonary edema, pulmonary emboli, pneumonia, and barotrauma.

Muscle spindles and the stretch reflex

The knee jerk is the popularly known stretch reflex (involuntary kick of the lower leg) induced by
tapping the knee with a rubber-headed hammer. The hammer strikes a tendon that inserts an extensor
muscle in the front of the thigh into the lower leg. Tapping the tendon stretches the thigh muscle,
which activates stretch receptors within the muscle called muscle spindles. Each muscle spindle
consists of sensory nerve endings wrapped around special muscle fibers called intrafusal muscle
fibers. Stretching an intrafusal fiber initiates a volley of impulses in the sensory neuron (a I-a neuron)
attached to it. The impulses travel along the sensory axon to the spinal cord where they form several
kinds of synapses:

1. Some of the branches of the I-a axons synapse directly with alpha motor neurons. These carry
impulses back to the same muscle causing it to contract. The leg straightens.

2. Some of the branches of the I-a axons synapse with inhibitory interneurons in the spinal cord. These, in
turn, synapse with motor neurons leading back to the antagonistic muscle, a flexor in the back of the
thigh. By inhibiting the flexor, these interneurons aid contraction of the extensor.

3. Still other branches of the I-a axons synapse with interneurons leading to brain centers, e.g., the
cerebellum, that coordinate body movements.[11]

Mechanism of sensation

In somatosensory transduction, the afferent neurons transmit messages through synapses in the
dorsal column nuclei, where second-order neurons send the signal to the thalamus and synapse with
third-order neurons in the ventrobasal complex. The third-order neurons then send the signal to the
somatosensory cortex.

More recent work has expanded the role of the cutaneous mechanoreceptors for feedback in fine
motor control.[12] Single action potentials from Meissner's corpuscle, Pacinian corpuscle and Ruffini
ending afferents are directly linked to muscle activation, whereas Merkel cell-neurite complex
activation does not trigger muscle activity.[13]

Invertebrate mechanoreceptors

Insect and arthropod mechanoreceptors include:[14]

Campaniform sensilla: Small domes in the exoskeleton that are distributed all along the insect's body.
These cells are thought to detect mechanical load as resistance to muscle contraction, similar to the
mammalian Golgi tendon organs.

Hair plates: Sensory neurons that innervate hairs that are found in the folds of insect joints. These hairs
are deflected when one body segment moves relative to an adjoining segment, they have proprioceptive
function, and are thought to act as limit detectors encoding the extreme ranges of motion for each
joint.[15]

Chordotonal organs: Internal stretch receptors at the joints, can have both extero- and proprioceptive
functions. The neurons in the chordotonal organ in Drosophila melanogaster can be organized into club,
claw, and hook neurons. Club neurons are thought to encode vibrational signals while claw and hook
neurons can be subdivided into extension and flexion populations that encode joint angle and movement
respectively.[16]

Slit sensilla:Slits in the exoskeleton that detect physical deformation of the animal's exoskeleton, have
proprioceptive function

Bristle sensilla: Bristle neurons are mechanoreceptors that innervate hairs all along the body. Each neuron
extends a dendritic process to innervate a single hair and projects its axon to the ventral nerve cord.
These neurons are thought to mediate touch sensation by responding to physical deflections of the
hair.[17] In line with the fact that many insects exhibit different sized hairs, commonly referred to as
macrochaetes (thicker longer hairs) and microchaetes (thinner shorter hairs), previous studies suggest
that bristle neurons to these different hairs may have different firing properties such as resting membrane
potential and firing threshold.[18][19]

Plant mechanoreceptors

Mechanoreceptors are also present in plant cells where they play an important role in normal growth,
development and the sensing of their environment.[20] Mechanoreceptors aid the Venus flytrap
(Dionaea muscipula Ellis) in capturing large[21] prey.[22]

Molecular biology

Mechanoreceptor proteins are ion channels whose ion flow is induced by touch. Early research
showed that touch transduction in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans was found to require a two
transmembrane, amiloride-sensitive ion channel protein related to epithelial sodium channels
(ENaCs).[23] This protein, called MEC-4, forms a heteromeric Na+-selective channel together with
MEC-10. Related genes in mammals are expressed in sensory neurons and were shown to be gated by
low pH. The first of such receptor was ASIC1a, named so because it is an acid sensing ion channel
(ASIC).[24]

See also

Somatosensory system

Thermoreceptor

Nociceptor

Stretch sensor

Vestibular system

References

1. ^ Johnson KO, Hsiao SS (1992). "Neural mechanisms of tactual form and texture perception". Annual Review
of Neuroscience. 15: 227–50. doi:10.1146/annurev.ne.15.030192.001303 . PMID 1575442 .

2. ^ Torebjörk HE, Ochoa JL (December 1980). "Specific sensations evoked by activity in single identified
sensory units in man". Acta Physiologica Scandinavica. 110 (4): 445–7. doi:10.1111/j.1748-
1716.1980.tb06695.x . PMID 7234450 .

3. ^ a b
Talbot WH, Darian-Smith I, Kornhuber HH, Mountcastle VB (March 1968). "The sense of flutter-vibration:
comparison of the human capacity with response patterns of mechanoreceptive afferents from the monkey
hand". Journal of Neurophysiology. 31 (2): 301–34. doi:10.1152/jn.1968.31.2.301 . PMID 4972033 .

4. ^ Johansson RS, Westling G (1987). "Signals in tactile afferents from the fingers eliciting adaptive motor
responses during precision grip". Experimental Brain Research. 66 (1): 141–54. doi:10.1007/bf00236210 .
PMID 3582528 . S2CID 22450227 .

5. ^ Biswas A, Manivannan M, Srinivasan MA (2015). "Multiscale layered biomechanical model of the pacinian
corpuscle" . IEEE Transactions on Haptics. 8 (1): 31–42. doi:10.1109/TOH.2014.2369416 .
PMID 25398182 . S2CID 24658742 .

6. ^ Biswas A, Manivannan M, Srinivasan MA (2015). "Vibrotactile sensitivity threshold: nonlinear stochastic

mechanotransduction model of the Pacinian Corpuscle" . IEEE Transactions on Haptics. 8 (1): 102–13.
doi:10.1109/TOH.2014.2369422 . PMID 25398183 . S2CID 15326972 .

7. ^ a b
Tortora GJ (2019). Principles of anatomy and physiology . John Wiley & Sons Australia, Limited.
ISBN 978-0-7303-5500-7. OCLC 1059417106 .

8. ^ Biswas A (2015). Characterization and Modeling of Vibrotactile Sensitivity Threshold of Human Finger Pad and
the Pacinian Corpuscle (PhD). Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Tamil Nadu, India.
doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.18103.11687 .

9. ^ Scheibert J, Leurent S, Prevost A, Debrégeas G (March 2009). "The role of fingerprints in the coding of
tactile information probed with a biomimetic sensor". Science. 323 (5920): 1503–6. arXiv:0911.4885 .
Bibcode:2009Sci...323.1503S . doi:10.1126/science.1166467 . PMID 19179493 . S2CID 14459552 .

10. ^ Michelson JD, Hutchins C (March 1995). "Mechanoreceptors in human ankle ligaments" . The Journal of
Bone and Joint Surgery. British Volume. 77 (2): 219–24. doi:10.1302/0301-620X.77B2.7706334 .
PMID 7706334 .

11. ^ Kimball JW (2011). "Mechanoreceptors" . Kimball's Biology Pages. Archived from the original on 27
February 2011.

12. ^ Johansson RS, Flanagan JR (May 2009). "Coding and use of tactile signals from the fingertips in object
manipulation tasks". Nature Reviews. Neuroscience. 10 (5): 345–59. doi:10.1038/nrn2621 .
PMID 19352402 . S2CID 17298704 .

13. ^ McNulty PA, Macefield VG (December 2001). "Modulation of ongoing EMG by different classes of low-
threshold mechanoreceptors in the human hand" . The Journal of Physiology. 537 (Pt 3): 1021–32.
doi:10.1111/j.1469-7793.2001.01021.x . PMC 2278990 . PMID 11744774 .

14. ^ Tuthill JC, Wilson RI (October 2016). "Mechanosensation and Adaptive Motor Control in Insects" . Current
Biology. 26 (20): R1022–R1038. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.06.070 . PMC 5120761 . PMID 27780045 .

15. ^ Bässler, U. (1977-06-01). "Sensory control of leg movement in the stick insect Carausius morosus" .
Biological Cybernetics. 25 (2): 61–72. doi:10.1007/BF00337264 . ISSN 1432-0770 . PMID 836915 .
S2CID 2634261 .

16. ^ Mamiya, Akira; Gurung, Pralaksha; Tuthill, John C. (2018-11-07). "Neural Coding of Leg Proprioception in
Drosophila" . Neuron. 100 (3): 636–650.e6. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2018.09.009 . ISSN 0896-6273 .
PMC 6481666 . PMID 30293823 . S2CID 52927792 .

17. ^ Tuthill, John C.; Wilson, Rachel I. (2016-02-25). "Parallel Transformation of Tactile Signals in Central Circuits
of Drosophila" . Cell. 164 (5): 1046–1059. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2016.01.014 . ISSN 0092-8674 .
PMC 4879191 . PMID 26919434 .

18. ^ Corfas, G; Dudai, Y (1990-02-01). "Adaptation and fatigue of a mechanosensory neuron in wild-type
Drosophila and in memory mutants" . The Journal of Neuroscience. 10 (2): 491–499.
doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.10-02-00491.1990 . ISSN 0270-6474 . PMC 6570162 . PMID 2154560 .

19. ^ Li, Jiefu; Zhang, Wei; Guo, Zhenhao; Wu, Sophia; Jan, Lily Yeh; Jan, Yuh-Nung (2016-11-02). "A Defensive
Kicking Behavior in Response to Mechanical Stimuli Mediated by Drosophila Wing Margin Bristles" . Journal
of Neuroscience. 36 (44): 11275–11282. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1416-16.2016 . ISSN 0270-6474 .
PMC 5148243 . PMID 27807168 . S2CID 2187830 .

20. ^ Monshausen GB, Haswell ES (November 2013). "A force of nature: molecular mechanisms of
mechanoperception in plants" . Journal of Experimental Botany. 64 (15): 4663–80. doi:10.1093/jxb/ert204 .
PMC 3817949 . PMID 23913953 .

21. ^ Chamovitz D (2012). What a plant knows : a field guide to the senses (1st ed.). New York: Scientific
American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374533885. OCLC 755641050 .

22. ^ Volkov AG, Forde-Tuckett V, Volkova MI, Markin VS (2014-02-10). "Morphing structures of the Dionaea
muscipula Ellis during the trap opening and closing" . Plant Signaling & Behavior. 9 (2): e27793.
Bibcode:2014PlSiB...9E7793V . doi:10.4161/psb.27793 . PMC 4091236 . PMID 24618927 .

23. ^ Driscoll, Monica; Chalfie, Martin (February 1991). "The mec-4 gene is a member of a family of
Caenorhabditis elegans genes that can mutate to induce neuronal degeneration" . Nature. 349 (6310): 588–
593. Bibcode:1991Natur.349..588D . doi:10.1038/349588a0 . ISSN 0028-0836 . PMID 1672038 .
S2CID 4334128 .

24. ^ Omerbašić, Damir; Schuhmacher, Laura-Nadine; Bernal Sierra, Yinth-Andrea; Smith, Ewan St. John; Lewin,
Gary R. (2015-07-01). "ASICs and mammalian mechanoreceptor function" . Neuropharmacology. Acid-
Sensing Ion Channels in the Nervous System. 94: 80–86. doi:10.1016/j.neuropharm.2014.12.007 .
ISSN 0028-3908 . PMID 25528740 . S2CID 6721868 .

External links

Mechanoreceptors at the U.S. National Library of Medicine Look up mechanoreceptor

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.

Last edited on 11 December 2023, at 13:38

Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted.

Terms of Use • Privacy policy • Desktop

: