Touch & Pain

Question 1

What are the two types of skin?

Answer 1

Glabrous – palms of hands and feet (no hair)
Hairy – everywhere else

Question 2

What is the name of skin with no hair?

Answer 2

Glabrous

Question 3

Does skin sensation always bypass the spinal cord before going to the brain?

Answer 3

Yes

Question 4

What are the 4 senses of the skin?

Answer 4

touch (‘mechanical’ stimuli)
pain
body sense (proprioception)
temperature

Question 5

What does merkel’s disc sense?

Answer 5

fine details (eg braille)

Question 6

What does messiner corpuscle sense?

Answer 6

Flutter (things slipping through your fingers)

Question 7

What does the ruffini organ sense?

Answer 7

Stretching

Question 8

What does the paccinian corpuscle sense?

Answer 8

vibrations & fine texture (eg using a pen/tool)

Question 9

Which have larger receptive fields, messiner’s corpsucles or paccian copuscles?

Answer 9

paccinian

Question 10

What do 2 point thresholds tests look at?

Answer 10

– the smallest separation of 2 separate but adjacent points of stimulation on the skin that just produces two distinct impressions of touch

Question 11

Is there plasticity in the acuity of someone’s fingertips?

Answer 11

Yes

Question 12

What is your kinaesthetic sense?

Answer 12

Your sense of your own movement (direction, weight, extent)

Question 13

What is the difference between spatial and temporal cues when perceiving texture?

Answer 13

Spatial cues – bumps and grooves, when finger is stationary or moving
Temporal cues – only when move finger across surface

Question 14

What type of tactile receptors do temporal cues use?

Answer 14

paccinian corpuscles

Question 15

What is the predominant symptom of tactile agnosia?

Answer 15

A patients cannot identify objects by touch, but no problems with spatial processing

Question 16

What is the predominant symptom of tactile extinction?

Answer 16

Patient has problems with tactile recognition (eg if you stimulate both arms, they will only feel one) but without problems in object recognition

Question 17

What is Aristotle’s illusion?

Answer 17

If you cross fingers and touch your nose - can cause you to feel like you’ve got 2 noses

Question 18

What is the cutaneous rabbit illusion?

Answer 18

• tapping people on the arm
• stimulus – widely separated taps
• perception – evenly space jumps

Question 19

Which fibres are related to pain and how?

Answer 19

A delta fibres – fast pain (sharp), pin prick, pinches, extreme temperature
C fibres – slow pain (dull) – many types of pain, (n.b. mild stimulation can be pleasurable!)

Question 20

What type of pain do A delta fibres signal?

Answer 20

Fast pain (sharp), pin prick, pinches, extreme temperature

Question 21

What type of pain do C fibres signal?

Answer 21

slow pain (dull) – many types of pain, (n.b. mild stimulation can be pleasurable!)

Question 22

What is battlefield agnosia?

Answer 22

When someone doesn’t experience pain because they are in a high adrenaline situation

Question 23

What is proprioception?

Answer 23

The awareness of posture, movement, and changes in equilibrium, and the knowledge of position, weight, and resistance of objects in relation to the body