Intro | Free Nerve Endings | Meissner's Corpuscle | Merkel's Disks | Pacinian Corpuscle | Ruffini Corpuscles | Subcutaneus Fat | Sweat Gland
Part 1: Image-Mapped Tutorial
Part 2: Matching Self-Test
Part 3: Multiple-Choice Self-Test
The Meissner's Corpuscle is found in small elevations of the dermis called papillae (or nipples) that project up into the epidermis of glabrous skin, exclusively. Two to six axons innervate this receptor which responds to low-frequency vibration. Meissner's corpuscles lie close to the surface of the skin and have small receptive fields. They adapt rapidly to stimuli, firing only transiently to the onset of stimulation in the form of low-frequency vibration (flutter).
| Advanced |
Psychophysical studies of pain receptors (Darian-Smith, 1984) indicate that they respond with peak sensitivity to vibration at approximately 40 Hertz (cycles per second). The discharge of action potentials is closely phase-locked to the cycle of stimulus vibration. The rapidly adapting response of Meissner's corpuscles is transmitted via fast conducting A-alpha or A-beta fibers.
| Reference |
Darian-Smith, I (Ed.). (1984). The handbook of physiology: sensory processes (Volume III, Parts 1 and 2). The American Physiological Society.