The response of single guard and down hair mechanoreceptors to moving air-jet stimulation

Ray, Richard H.; Mallach, Lawrence E.; Kruger, Lawrence

doi:10.1016/0006-8993(85)90867-4

Cited by 21 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Such intensely NF ϩ thincaliber fibers typically label with anti-myelin basic protein, indicating that they may be A␦-fibers (Fundin et al, 1997a;Rice et al, 1997), which have been implicated in nociceptive or thermoreceptive functions with relatively poor spatial localization (Burgess and Perl, 1973;Kruger, 1987). However, some may also subserve low-threshold mechanoreceptive functions (Burgess and Perl, 1973;Ray et al, 1985). Our behavioral findings (Crish et al, 2003) suggest that tactile localization is not a major role for this innervation.…”

Section: Nfmentioning

confidence: 73%

Somatosensory organization and behavior in naked mole‐rats: II. Peripheral structures, innervation, and selective lack of neuropeptides associated with thermoregulation and pain

Park

Comer

Carol

et al. 2003

J of Comparative Neurology

107

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African naked mole-rats are subterranean rodents that have a robust orienting response to stimulation of unique vibrissa-like body hairs that are widely spaced over an otherwise hairless skin. To determine whether these large body hairs have a specialized organization similar to facial vibrissae, the structure and innervation of facial vibrissa follicles, body hair follicles, and intervening skin in naked mole-rats was compared with that in rats and a furred African mole-rat species (the common mole-rat). Immunofluorescence and lectin-binding analyses revealed that the body hair follicles in naked mole-rats were exceptionally large and well innervated, similar to guard hairs of furred species. However, these body vibrissae lacked the anatomic specializations and unique types of innervation affiliated with follicle sinus complexes of facial vibrissae. In contrast to the furred species, naked mole-rats had a paucity of Abeta-fiber Merkel endings at all peripheral locations. Naked mole-rats also were completely lacking in cutaneous C-fibers immunoreactive for substance P and calcitonin gene-related peptide. In contrast, the hairless skin of the naked mole-rats had an exceptional abundance of presumptive Adelta-fibers. The unusual features of the cutaneous innervation in naked mole-rats are presumably adaptations to their subterranean environment and that they are the only known poikilothermic mammal. The features of this mammalian model system provide unique opportunities to discriminate mechanisms related to tactile spatial orientation, vascular regulation, and nociception.

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Section: Nfmentioning

confidence: 73%

Somatosensory organization and behavior in naked mole‐rats: II. Peripheral structures, innervation, and selective lack of neuropeptides associated with thermoregulation and pain

Park

Comer

Carol

et al. 2003

J of Comparative Neurology

107

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“…On the other hand, attempts to address the issue of direction selectivity of hairy skin LTMRs of cats, rabbits, and primates have suggested that LTMRs are (Brown and Iggo, 1967; Maruhashi et al, 1952; Tuckett, 1978) or are not (Essick and Whitsel, 1985; Greenspan, 1992; Hyvärinen and Poranen, 1978; Whitsel et al, 1972) sensitive to the direction of deflection of normal hair follicles. One study that asked whether feline hairy skin Aδ-LTMRs exhibit direction-selective responses concluded that these neurons may be direction-selective but that it is difficult to ascertain because of their ultrasensitive response property (Ray et al, 1985). Indeed, no one LTMR subtype has been unequivocally shown to be differentially sensitive to the direction of movement of objects across hairy skin, leading to the idea that information about direction of stimulus movement is represented exclusively by the firing patterns evoked in populations of mechanoreceptors activated by a moving tactile stimulus, rather than by direction selectivity of individual LTMR subtypes (Essick and Edin, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cellular and Molecular Basis of Direction Selectivity of Aδ-LTMRs

Rutlin

Abraira

et al. 2014

Cell

155

157

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Summary The perception of touch, including the direction of stimulus movement across the skin, begins with activation of low-threshold mechanosensory neurons (LTMRs) that innervate the skin. Here, we show that murine Aδ-LTMRs are preferentially tuned to deflection of body hairs in the caudal-to-rostral direction. This tuning property is explained by the finding that Aδ-LTMR lanceolate endings around hair follicles are polarized; they are concentrated on the caudal (downward) side of each hair follicle. The neurotrophic factor BDNF is synthesized in epithelial cells on the caudal, but not rostral, side of hair follicles, in close proximity to Aδ-LTMR lanceolate endings, which express TrkB. Moreover, ablation of BDNF in hair follicle epithelial cells disrupts polarization of Aδ-LTMR lanceolate endings and results in randomization of Aδ-LTMR responses to hair deflection. Thus, BDNF-TrkB signaling directs polarization of Aδ-LTMR lanceolate endings, which underlies direction-selective responsiveness of Aδ-LTMRs to hair deflection.

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“…The analyses presented in this article were prompted by the demonstration that individual mechanoreceptors in monkeys and cats respond differentially to different velocities and directions of surface-parallel motion (Whitsel et al, 1972;Young et al, 1978;Lamb, 1983b;Franz& et al, 1984;Ray et al, 1985;Goodwin and Morley, 1987a,b;LaMotte and Srinivasan, 1987a,b). These observations suggest that information about the velocity and direction is available from the discharges of the population of mechanoreceptors activated by a moving tactile stimulus (viz., by a within-fiber code or one that does not depend on either the spatial locations of the receptive fields or their spatiotemporal sequence of activation).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Receptor encoding of moving tactile stimuli in humans. II. The mean response of individual low-threshold mechanoreceptors to motion across the receptive field

Essick

Edin

1995

J. Neurosci.

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The mean firing rate evoked in 70 cutaneous, low-threshold mechanoreceptors in the human median, radial, and inferior alveolar nerves by stimulus motion across the skin was quantitatively studied. Moving stimuli, controlled for velocity, direction, and length of skin traversed, were provided by a servo-controlled motor that carried a brush across the receptive field. Each unit was studied with stimuli delivered at multiple velocities from 0.5 to 32 cm/sec in at least two opposing directions. A power function provided an excellent description of the MFR-versus-velocity relationship. The exponent n was interpreted to reflect the receptor's sensitivity to changes in stimulus velocity, and the multiplicative constant c, the predicted response to stimuli moving at 1.0 cm/sec. The fast adapting mechanoreceptors exhibited higher sensitivity to stimulus velocity than the slowly adapting mechanoreceptors. The mean velocity at which the fast adapting units were predicted to first respond to movement was also higher. Estimates of n, c, or both differed significantly for stimuli delivered in opposing directions for more than 70% of the mechanoreceptors. No direction of motion consistently led to power function parameters with higher values so as to suggest a “preferred” regional direction of motion for the entire population. Neither the directional difference in n nor c could be attributed to directional differences in the forces applied across the receptive fields. These findings suggest that information about velocity and direction is represented in the mean firing rate responses evoked in the population of mechanoreceptors activated by a moving tactile stimulus.

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The response of single guard and down hair mechanoreceptors to moving air-jet stimulation

Cited by 21 publications

References 39 publications

Somatosensory organization and behavior in naked mole‐rats: II. Peripheral structures, innervation, and selective lack of neuropeptides associated with thermoregulation and pain

Somatosensory organization and behavior in naked mole‐rats: II. Peripheral structures, innervation, and selective lack of neuropeptides associated with thermoregulation and pain

The Cellular and Molecular Basis of Direction Selectivity of Aδ-LTMRs

Receptor encoding of moving tactile stimuli in humans. II. The mean response of individual low-threshold mechanoreceptors to motion across the receptive field

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