Journal
EXPERIMENTAL BRAIN RESEARCH
Volume 201, Issue 1, Pages 59-64Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00221-009-2005-0
Keywords
Mechanoreceptor; Microneurography; Trigeminal nerve; Tactile sensibility; Oral mucosa
Categories
Funding
- Swedish Medical Research Council and Karolinska Institutet
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We used microneurography to investigate the functional properties of low-threshold mechanoreceptive afferents innervating the oral mucosa of the inside of the lower lip. Impulse responses were recorded from the inferior alveolar nerve of four human subjects. The threshold force and receptive field boundaries were identified for 19 single mechanoreceptive afferents using thin filaments (von Frey hairs) that applied known forces to the mucosa. Most of the receptive fields were located close to the corners of the mouth. Twelve of the afferents were slowly adapting (SA) and the remaining seven units were fast adapting (FA). Two types of slowly adapting responses were observed, SA I and SA II. Four of the six SA II units were spontaneously active. The geometric mean value of the receptive field sizes was 4.20 mm(2) for the SA I units, 5.65 mm(2) for the SA II units, and 5.60 mm(2) for the FA I units. None of the FA afferents showed response properties characteristic of Pacinian-corpuscle type afferents (FA II units). All afferents showed low force threshold between 0.06 and 1 mN. The properties of the mechanoreceptors supplying the human labial mucosa appear more similar to those of the vermilion and facial skin of the lower lip than those supplying the mucosa of the dorsal tongue.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available