Tactile perception

Eva Rudolf-Müller is a freelance writer in the medical team. She studied human medicine and newspaper sciences and has repeatedly worked in both areas - as a doctor in the clinic, as a reviewer, and as a medical journalist for various specialist journals. She is currently working in online journalism, where a wide range of medicine is offered to everyone.

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The term "tactile perception" describes the surface sensitivity of the skin, the sense of touch and sensation. We perceive various stimuli such as touch, pressure, temperature and pain via different receptors in the skin. Read everything you need to know about tactile perception!

What is tactile perception?

Tactile perception (surface sensitivity) is a comprehensive term for everything that we perceive through receptors on the skin. We register pain sensations via pain receptors, temperature stimuli via thermoreceptors and touch, pressure and vibrations via mechanoreceptors. The stimuli perceived by a receptor are transmitted directly to the central nervous system via a nerve fiber.

All of these receptors are located in different densities and numbers in the skin and also in the mucous membrane (especially on the tongue). On a square centimeter of skin there are an average of two heat, 13 cold, 25 pressure and 200 pain points.

Pain receptors

Pain receptors are free nerve endings of sensitive nerves in the superficial epithelial layers of the skin, which lead to the feeling of pain when excited. The excitation can occur through mechanical or chemical stimuli. Pain receptors also sense itching - a subliminal sensation of pain.

Thermoreceptors

Thermoreceptors are nerve end corpuscles or encapsulated nerve endings in the dermis and subcutaneous tissue that react to temperature and changes in it. They react up to a warming of the skin of around 43 degrees Celsius. If the temperature continues to rise, the heat stimulus turns into a painful heat stimulus that activates the pain receptors.

Mechanoreceptors

Mechanoreceptors in the skin are also nerve end corpuscles. They respond to mechanical stimuli such as stretching and pressure. Examples of mechanoreceptors:

Meissner corpuscles are touch sensors. They register how quickly a pressure or a touch changes. If the stimulus persists, their sensitivity quickly decreases. Meissner's bodies sit in the papillae of the hairless skin, especially in the palm and on the fingertips.

Vibrations are perceived through Vater-Pacini corpuscles. These lie in the subcutaneous tissue and are the most important representatives of the so-called lamellar bodies. These are oval or round, half a millimeter to one millimeter large nerve end corpuscles, the cells of which are layered like an onion skin and which can even be seen with the naked eye.

Merkel cells are nerve endings spread out over the entire surface of the epidermis. In particular, they register the strength of a vertical, permanent pressure, for example the body weight on the sole of the foot. They hardly lose any of their sensitivity with prolonged pressure. In contrast to other mechanoreceptors, Merkel cells also perceive constant, constant stimuli.

Like Merkel cells, Ruffini bodies are so-called pressure sensors. You especially perceive stretching stimuli - the direction and strength of shear forces. Ruffini bodies, for example, register the stretching of the skin surface when handling tools.

Why is tactile perception important?

Tactile perception is used to grasp and explore the environment. For example, you can collect information about objects through the tactile perception of objects that you explore with your hand or foot. Up to their first year of life, toddlers can best recognize objects with their mouth, which has a large number of receptors.

The sensory cells of the skin, which transmit tactile stimuli to the central nervous system, can also protect us from damage if we react accordingly to pain or heat stimuli.

What problems can tactile perception cause?

When nerves that are connected to receptors in the skin are damaged, the tactile perception of stimuli can either be increased (hyperesthesia) or decreased (hypesthesia). Paresthesia is called paresthesia. Sensitivity disorders, pain sensations and itching are caused by irritation or a failure of the sensory nerves.

Mental disorders can impair tactile perception because the skin and psyche are closely related.

Tags:  teenager stress healthy feet