CHAPTER 15 - The Cutaneous Senses

Question 1

Describe the four types of mechanoreceptors in the skin, indicating (a) their appearance, (b) where they are located, (c) how they respond to pressure, (d) the size of their receptive fields, (e) the type of perception associated with each receptor, and (f) the type of fibre associated with each receptor

Question 2

Where is the cortical receiving area for touch, and what does the map of the body on the cortical receiving area look like? How can this map be changed by experience?

Question 3

How is tactile acuity measured, and what are the receptor and cortical mechanisms that serve tactile acuity?

Question 4

Which receptor is primarily responsible for the perception of vibration? Describe the experiment that showed that the presence of the receptor structure determines how the fibre fires

Question 5

What is the duplex theory of texture perception? Describe the series of behavioural experiments that led to the conclusion that vibration is responsible for perceivable fine textures and observations that have been made about the experience of exploring an object with a probe

Question 6

Describe the experiment which showed how monkey cortical neurons respond to texture. What do the results indicate about how texture is represented in the cortex?

Question 7

What processes are involved in identifying objects by haptic exploration?

Question 8

Describe the specialization of cortical areas for touch and how cortical responding to touch is affected by attention

Question 9

What is social touch?

Question 10

Which receptors in the skin are responsible for social touch?

Question 11

What is the social touch hypothesis?

Question 12

What brain areas are involved in social touch?

Question 13

How do “situational influences” affect social touch?

Question 14

Describe the three types of pain

Question 15

What is the direct pathway model of pain? What evidence led researchers to question this model of pain perception?

Question 16

What is the gate control model? Be sure you understand the roles of the nociceptors, mechanoreceptors, and central control

Question 17

Describe evidence that supports the conclusions that pain is influenced by expectation, attention, and emotion

Question 18

What does it mean to say that pain is multimodal? Describe the hypnosis experiments that identified areas involved in the sensory component of pain and the emotional component of pain

Question 19

Describe the role of chemicals in the perception of pain. Be sure you understand how endorphins and naloxone interact at receptor sites, and a possible mechanism that explains why pain is reduced by placebos

Question 20

Describe the experiment which shows that social touch can cause a decrease in pain

Question 21

Describe the experiments which showed how observing someone being touched or observing someone experiencing pain can affect activity in the observer’s brain. What do these results tell us about empathy?

Question 22

What is the evidence supporting the idea that social and physical pain share some mechanisms? What evidence questions this idea?

Question 23

How has the plasticity of the somatosensory cortex been demonstrated in monkeys? In humans? What is hand dystonia, and how is it related to brain plasticity?

Question 24

What are some examples of brain plasticity in vision and hearing that were described in previous chapters?

Question 25

When does touch develop in infants, and what is the evidence that social touch has an impact on later development?