RECEPTORS
Sensory Receptors
• Our perceptions of signals within our bodies and of the world around us are mediated
by a complex system of sensory receptors that detect such stimuli as touch, sound,
light, pain, cold and warmth.
• In response to stimuli, the sensory receptor initiates sensory transduction by creating
action potentials in the same cell or in an adjacent one.
• Somatic sensations are carried from the receptors via sensory fibers in the peripheral
nerves to the spinal cord.
• Enter spinal cord via dorsal root
Components of Sensory System
1. Sensory receptors:- Transduce signals into
neural signals.
2. Afferent neurons:- I, II & III order neurons.
3. Sensory cortex:- Sensory areas of cerebral
cortex.
Somatosensory Axis of Nervous System
Guyton and Hall 13 edition
SENSATIONS
• Special senses- visual, auditory, olfactory,
gustatory
• General somatic senses- touch, pressure, pain,
temperature, proprioception, kinaesthetic
General visceral senses- arise from the viscera,
i.e. internal organs
Proprioceptive and kinaesthetic sensations arise from the muscles, tendons and joints.
These include:
(i) Proprioceptive sensations: concerned with physical state of the body, i.e. the sense of
position, tendon and muscle sensations.
(ii) Kinaesthetic sensations or kinaesthesia: conscious recognition of rate of movement of
different parts of the body.
Classification of Receptors
Depending on the source of stimulus (Sherrington’s classification)
1. Exteroceptors:- Cutaneous receptors for pain, touch & temp (receive stimuli
from outside)
2. Interoceptors :- Chemo, Baro, Proprio, Osmo (stimuli from inside)
3. Telereceptors:- Visual, Cochlear, Olfactory (receive stimuli from distance)
Depending on type of stimulus energy
• Mechanoreceptors- respond to mechanical stimuli such as mechanical
compression, stretching of receptor or adjacent tissues (Cutaneous receptors,
Muscle and joint receptors, Hair cells in cochlea, Baroreceptors)
• Thermoreceptors - detect change in temperature (cold receptors and warm
receptor)
• Nociceptors – Detect physical/chemical damage (pain receptors)
• Electromagnetic - Detect light (rods & cones)
• Chemoreceptors - Taste, smell, CO2, O2 etc. (Taste receptors, Olfactory receptors,
Osmoreceptors)
Cutaneous
receptors
Mechanoreceptors
Skin
surface
Dermis
A – Meissners corpuscle ( touch ,slow vibration;),s;lo
B - Merkle's cells (touch ,pressure)
C - Free nerve ending (pain)
D - Pacinian corpuscle (deep pressure,fast vibration)
E – Ruffinis corpuscle (sustained pressure)
Mechanoreceptor Location Function Adaptation
Epidermis (Fingertips, Pressure & Texture
Merkel Discs Slow
Lips) discrimination
Light Touch &
Dermis (Fingertips,
Meissner Corpuscles Fluttering Rapid
Palms, Lips)
Movements
Vibration & Deep
Pacinian Corpuscles Deep Dermis Rapid
Pressure
Ruffini Endings Dermis sustained pressure Slow
Hair Follicle Hair Movement
Base of Hair Follicles Rapid
Receptors Detection
Detect Muscle
Muscle Spindles Skeletal Muscles Slow
Stretch
Detect Muscle
Golgi Tendon Organs Tendons Slow
Tension
Properties of Receptors
1. Specificity of response
2. Production of receptor potential on stimulation
3. Adaptation
4. Effect of strength of stimulus
5. Effect of velocity of stimulus
6. Law of Projection
Specificity of response
• Also called law of adequate stimulus
• Each receptor is easily stimulated (has low threshold) by only one type of
appropriate (adequate) specific stimulus
• receptors can respond to other forms of energy if the intensity is high enough
• Adequate stimulus for rod and cones of retina is light
• Pressure on the eyeball can also stimulate retinal receptors (high threshold)
Adaptation
• When receptor is continuously stimulated with the same strength of stimulus,
they respond at a very high impulse rate at first, but the frequency of action
potential in its sensory nerve decreases progressively
Depending on the rate of adaptation the receptors are of two types:
1. slow adapting receptors: keep on firing action potentials continuously during stimulus application.
Eg. Pain receptors (ensuring continuous pain perception for protection.)
2. rapidly adapting receptors: fire action potentials at a progressively decreasing rate during stimulus
application, transmit signals only when the stimulus strength is changed.
Eg. Meissner’s corpuscles (for touch), olfactory receptors (for smell)
Effect of strength of stimulus
• Stronger Stimulus → Greater Response
• Receptor potential amplitude depends on strength of stimulus
• If the response given by the receptor is to be doubled, the strength of stimulus
must be increased 10 times.
• strength of a stimulus is encoded by the frequency of action potentials, not
their size.
• Eg: Gentle touch vs. strong pressure: More action potentials are fired in the case
of strong pressure
Effect of velocity of stimulus
• Refers to how fast a stimulus is applied to a receptor.
• The magnitude of the receptor potential rises with rate of change of stimulus application.
• Effect of Different Velocities:
1. Slow stimulus → Weak response
2. Fast stimulus → Strong response
3. Very rapid changes → Some receptors respond only to rapid changes (e.g., Pacinian corpuscles
detect vibration).
Projection
• A sensation is felt at the site of receptor activation, even if the nerve is stimulated
elsewhere. This is called law of projection
• The brain projects the sensation to the original receptor site, even if the signal is artificially
stimulated elsewhere
Receptor Potential?
• Graded electrical response produced in sensory receptors when stimulated.
• Stronger stimuli → larger receptor potentials.
• If receptor potential reaches threshold → action potential in sensory neurons.
Steps of Receptor Activation:
1. Stimulus detected by receptor.
2. Ion channels open/close, changing membrane potential.
3. If the threshold is reached, an action potential is generated and transmitted to the CNS.
• Anesthetics block receptor potentials, preventing pain transmission.
Properties of receptor potential
• Graded response i.e its amplitude increases with increasing rate or strength of stimulus
(does not obey all or none law)
• Summation i.e receptor potential from two stimuli can be added
• Refractory period is not there
• Local response i.e cannot be propagated
• Duration of receptor potential is greater than action potential
How do two types of sensory receptors detect different
types of sensory stimuli?
Differential Sensitivities
• Each type of receptor is highly sensitive to one type of stimulus for which it is designed.
• Non-responsive to other types of sensory stimuli.
• For eg. Rods and Cones of the eyes are highly responsive to light but are almost completely
non-responsive to normal ranges of heat, cold, pressure on the eyeballs, or chemical changes in
the blood.
• The osmoreceptors of the supraoptic nuclei in the hypothalamus detect minute changes in
the osmolality of the body fluids but have never been known to respond to sound.
Mechanisms of Receptor Potentials
• Different receptors can be excited in one of several ways to cause receptor potentials:
(1) by mechanical deformation of the receptor, which stretches the receptor membrane
and opens ion channels;
(2) by application of a chemical to the membrane, which also opens ion channels;
(3) by change of the temperature of the membrane, which alters the permeability of
the membrane;
(4) by the effects of electromagnetic radiation, such as light on a retinal visual receptor,
which either directly or indirectly changes the receptor membrane characteristics and
allows ions to flow through membrane channels
• Basic cause of the change in membrane potential
change in membrane permeability of the receptor
(which allows ions to diffuse more or less readily through the membrane and there by to
change the transmembrane potential)
• Whenever the receptor potential rises above the threshold for eliciting action potential in
the nerve fibre attached to the receptor, then action potentials occur.
Relation of the Receptor Potential to Action
Potentials
more the receptor potential rises above the threshold level, the
greater becomes the action potential frequency
Guyton and Hall 13 edition
SENSORY CODING
• Converting a receptor stimulus to a recognizable sensation is termed sensory coding.
• In the process of sensory transduction, one or more aspects of the stimulus must be
encoded in a way that can be interpreted by the CNS.
• The encoded information is based on
(1) which sensory receptors are activated
(2) the responses of sensory receptors to the stimulus
(3) information processing in the sensory pathway.
• All sensory systems code for four elementary attributes of a stimulus:
1. Modality (M)
2. Intensity (I)
3. Location (L)
4. Duration (D)
Modality of Sensation
• Each of the principal types of sensation that we can experience—pain, touch, sight,
sound, and so forth— is called a modality of sensation.
• refers to the type or nature of the stimulus detected by sensory receptors.
• This specificity of nerve fibers for transmitting only one modality of sensation is
called the labeled line principle i.e. brain interprets the type of sensation (modality)
based on the specific pathway activated, not the nature of the stimulus itself.
How do different nerve fibers transmit different
modalities of sensation?
• Each nerve tract terminates in the central nervous system, and the type
of sensation felt when a nerve fiber is stimulated is determined by the
point in the nervous system to which the fiber leads.
• For instance, if a pain fiber is stimulated, the person perceives pain
regardless of what type of stimulus excites the fiber.
damage to the stimulus electricity
tissue cells
overheating of the fiber
crushing of the fiber
• The person perceives pain.
INTENSITY
• The intensity of sensation is determined by the amplitude of the stimulus applied
to the receptor.
As a greater pressure is applied to the skin
Receptor potential in the mechanoreceptor INCREASES
Frequency of the action potentials in a single axon
transmitting information to the CNS is also INCREASES
Relationship between stimulus and impulse frequency in an afferent fiber
Ganong 25 edition
LOCATION
• Location of a stimulus is encoded by spatial distribution of population of receptors
activated.
• A receptor fires only when the skin close to its sensory terminals is touched.
• receptive fields of mechanoreceptors (shown as red areas on fingertips) differ in size and
response to touch.
• Merkel cells and Meissner’s corpuscles provide the most precise localization as they have
the smallest receptive fields and are most sensitive to pressure applied by a small probe.
• Stimulus location is recognized accurately due to point to- point representation of the body in the
somatosensory cortex.
• when the sensory fibres are stimulated anywhere in their course to the cortex, the conscious
sensation produced is referred to the location of the receptor. (Law of projection)
• Because of this reason, after amputation of a limb, sometimes patient complains of intense pain
in the absent limb (phantom limb).
• These sensations are produced due to irritation of the damaged nociceptive and proprioceptive
afferents at the stump of amputated limb.
• The sensations evoked are projected to the area where receptors are used to be located.
DURATION
If a stimulus of constant strength is maintained on a sensory receptor
The frequency of the action potentials in its sensory nerve declines over time.
known as
receptor adaptation or desensitization
Receptors can be classified into
• Rapidly adapting receptors eg- Meissner
Pacinian corpuscle
• Slowly adapting receptors eg - Merkel cells
Ruffini endings
Adaptation of Receptors
• All sensory receptors adapt either partially or completely to any constant stimulus
after a period of time
• When a continuous sensory stimulus is applied, the receptor responds at a high
impulse rate at first and then at a progressively slower rate until finally the rate
of action potentials decreases to very few or often to none at all.
Pacinian corpuscle - very
rapidly
hair receptors- within a
second
some joint capsule and
muscle spindle
receptors- adapt slowly
Guyton and Hall 13 edition
Mechanisms of Adaptation of Receptors
Pacinian corpuscle is a viscoelastic structure,
when a distorting force is suddenly applied to the corpuscle
this force is instantly transmitted by the viscous component of the corpuscle
directly to the central nerve fiber,
receptor potential elicited
within a few hundredths of a second, the fluid within the corpuscle
redistributes
the receptor potential is no longer elicited
• Another mechanism of adaptation of the Pacinian corpuscle results from a process called
accommodation, which occurs in the nerve fibre itself
If the central core of fiber is distorted continuously
progressive “inactivation” of the sodium channels in the nerve fiber
membrane
current flow through the channels causes them gradually to close
the tip of the nerve fiber gradually becomes “accommodated” to the stimulus
Detection of touch, pressure & vibration by
mechanoreceptors
• Pressure: when force applied can reach receptors located in deeper layers of
skin
• Touch: when force is insufficient to reach deeper layers
• Vibrations: rhythmic vibrations present in force applied
Two point discrimination
• ability to distinguish two touch stimuli separately
• Minimum distance: 2-3 mm on lips and 60 mm on back
• Related to density of touch receptors on different parts of the body
Stereognosis
• ability to recognize familiar objects, such as a key, coins, pen, pencil, spoons, etc.
by merely handling them without looking at them
• somatic sensory association area plays a major role.
Neural transmission from receptors to ascending tracts
• All the somatic afferent impulses enter the spinal cord through the dorsal nerve root .
Neural transmission
• touch–pressure sensation from the mechanoreceptors to central nervous system
(CNS) by:
1. A (β and δ) sensory fibres
2. Unmyelinated C fibres also conduct some touch impulses.
Receptors for proprioception & kinaesthetic
• Muscle spindle or stretch receptors
• Joint receptors located in the joint capsules and ligaments around the joints.
Ruffini’s end organs are the most important receptors for this function. (few
Pacinian corpuscles also involved)
• Golgi tendon organ
• Vestibular receptors
Q. The Labeled Line Principle states that:
A) Sensory receptors can detect multiple modalities.
B) Each sensory pathway is dedicated to a specific type of stimulus.
C) All sensory information is processed in the spinal cord.
D) The brain can change the sensory modality of a stimulus.
Q. The Law of Projection states that:
A) Sensory perception is always accurate.
B) The brain interprets a sensation as coming from the location of the
receptor, even if the nerve is stimulated elsewhere.
C) Pain is always projected to the site of injury.
D) Sensory nerves can change their pathways
Q. Phantom limb pain occurs due to:
A) The brain adapting to nerve loss
B) The law of projection
C) The labeled line principle
D) Loss of sensory nerves
Q. Weber-Fechner Law states that perceived intensity of a stimulus:
A) Increases linearly with actual stimulus strength
B) Increases logarithmically with actual stimulus strength
C) Is independent of stimulus strength
D) Decreases with increasing stimulus strength
Q. Which receptors respond throughout the duration of a stimulus?
A) Rapidly adapting receptors
B) Slowly adapting receptors
C) Mechanoreceptors only
D) Nociceptors only