Somatosensory & Motor Research

“The second level of integration is reached when the three basic sensations – tactile, vestibular, and proprioceptive – are integrated into body percept, coordination of the two sides of the body, motor planning, activity level, attention span, and emotional stability (Ayres, 2005:54). Although Kianah’s vestibular system is processing input efficiently, her tactile and proprioceptive systems are poorly integrated leading to inefficient somatosensory processing. This leads to several other difficulties and forms the underlying basis for her somatodyspraxia.

During their study, these researchers found that blind participants performed higher than the sighted control group in a number of auditory, tactile and olfactory tasks ranging from basic sensory up to higher levels of cognitive tasks. According to a study by Muchnik, Efrati, Nemeth, Malin and Hildesheimer (1991) found that blind participants outperformed sighted participants in auditory tasks. Similar results were noted by Alary, Duquette, Goldstein, Elaine, Voss, Buissonniere-Ariza and Lepore (2009) for tactile tasks. Other researchers also found similar results for olfactory perceptual discrimination (Cuevas, Plaza, Rombaux, Volder & Renier, 2009), auditory localization (Lessard, Pare, Lepore and Lassonde, 1998), speech perception (Muchnik et. al, 1991), temporal perception (Muchnik et. al, 1991), voice processing (Klinge, Rӧder & Büchel, 2010b) and short term (Bliss, Kujala & Hamalinen, 2004) -long term memory tasks(Amedi, Raz, Pianka, Malach & Zohary, 2003).

In this lab we apply the technique known as a two point discrimination test. This test will allow us to determine which regions of the skin are best able to discriminate between two simultaneous sensory impulses. According to (Haggard et al. 2007), tactile discrimination depends on the size of the receptive fields located on the somatosensory neurons. However receptive fields for other types of sensations are located elsewhere. For vision we find that the receptive fields are located inside the visual cortex, and for hearing we find receptive fields in the auditory cortex. The ability for the body to discriminate two points depends on how well that area of the body is innervated with neurons; and thus conferring to the size of the

The difference between the homunculus motor and the homunculus sensory is the homunculus motor is in charge the movements of the body and the homunculus sensory is charge of the sensation. Some of the difference between the motor and sensory homunculus are the hands of the motor are large than the sensory, the motor has no arms and the sensory does, the body of the motor is longer than the body of the sensory, the mouth of the motor is close and the mouth of is open and has the tongue out. Theses difference is what makes each one unique within their function. The sensory homunculus ensures that all the sense and sensation are working properly and the motor homunculus will ensure that the body movement are functioning well. The sensory homunculus

(Attention) Did you know that there are over 5,000,000 touch receptors in our skin and 3,000 of them are in the finger tips. Imagine all the endorphins being released by the slightest touch of another person.

The impact of this research supports the notion that the practice of compensating with the strengths is inadequate and that we should in fact be exercising the weak functions instead.. According to neuroscientist Carla Shatz “neurons that fire together wire together”. This provides explanation for the power of multi-sensory intervention – when you pair a weak sensory channel with a stronger one and thereby rewire the

Joanni appears to have intact vestibular processing. Joanni demonstrates inadequate proprioceptive and tactile awareness in the hands and fingers as evidence by his inability to appropriately latch his zipper or ability to manipulate other small objects when doing fine motor activities. Proprioception is the way receptors in our joints perceive muscle movements and it is important because those receptors allow us to coordinate movements. The Tactile system works through receptors in our skin which provide us with information about temperature, pressure, touch, and pain. One of the most important functions of the tactile system is to help alert us of danger in our environment A delay in processing this information may impact a person with fine

Neurosensory Science was made up of Neuroanatomy and Neurophysiology. It dealt with the workings of the nervous system, a topic too complex to cover adequately in the Anatomy or Physiology courses.

The human body can relate to many items that are used everybody by many. One of those items can be a vending machine. Yes, it is indeed true that a vending machine can in fact be related to the human body, especially motor neurons. When one wants to buy a snack, and have the convenience of a vending machine it acts in the way just as a motor neuron. A motor neuron is a type of neuron that transfers impulses from the central nervous system (CNS) to either a muscle or gland. There are three types of motor neurons, one of them being somatic motor neurons, special visceral motor neurons, and general visceral motor neurons. In our case, we are dealing with somatic motor neurons because the neuron not only begins from the central nervous system,

Mechanoreceptors are structures in the body that enable people to experience physical sensations. They feed perceptible data to the brain in order to be processed. There are several forms of mechanoreceptors, intended to sense diverse types of perceptible information, and these constitutions function in different ways. In disorders concerning sensory sensitivity, some people have issues with their mechanoreceptors or the nervous system does not transfer information normally from these structures to the brain (place reference here).

The accuracy with which tactile stimuli can be sensed differs from one area of the body to another and from one individual to another (Purves et al., 2001). The difference in tactile ability across the body surface can be measured by two-point discrimination (Purves et al., 2001). Two-point discrimination (TPD) is the measurement of the cutaneous sensation to distinguish one-point from two-point static touch stimuli (Periyasamy et al., 2008). TPD has been used to evaluate tactile spatial acuity since E. H. Weber published his seminal work on the sense of touch, De Tactu, in 1834 (Tong et al., 2013). TPD helps in diagnosis diseases like Diabetic neuropathy since it is a quantitative and direct measure of sensory loss (Periyasamy et al.,

Our sense of touch is controlled by a huge network of nerve endings and touch receptors in the skin known as the somatosensory system. This system is responsible for all the sensations we feel. Within the somatosensory system, there are four main types of receptors: mechanoreceptors, pain receptors, thermoreceptors, and proprioceptors. Mechanoreceptors decipher sensations such as pressure, vibrations, and texture. The thermoreceptors are responsible for perceiving the temperature of objects we touch. Pain receptors do exactly as they are named, they are responsible for detecting the feeling of pain. Finally, proprioceptors sense the position of the different parts of the body in relation to each other and the surrounding environment. When your hand touches an object, the mechanoreceptors in the skin are activated, and they start a chain of events by signaling to the nearest neuron that they touched something until the message reaches the brain, and causes a reaction (Pediaopolis

I was kind of surprised at the first part of this quote; it would have been my assumption that if any part of the sensory systems were to be negatively affected, development would automatically be hindered. This being said, it does make sense that the more sensory systems that are affected, the greater the impact on motor performance is

Theoretically, because perceptual motor behaviors are performed in response to the nervous systems interpretation of sensory inputs, normal sensory processing should help the client to make more

The methodology employed to derive the findings listed above involved examining the adaption rates of tactile spine neurons. Neurons in the tactile spine were directly stimulated with varying intensities followed by a frequency-response analysis. Neuronal behavior was characterized as a function of the extracellular calcium concentration, the presence of calcium channel agonist, or calcium ionophore antibiotic A23187. Extracellular concentrations of calcium included, 1 mM (low), 5 mM (normal), and 15 mM (high). The subject of stimulation and