The somatosensory cortex
receives tactile information from the body
, including sensations such as touch, pressure, temperature, and pain. This sensory information is then carried to the brain via neural pathways to the spinal cord, brainstem, and thalamus.
What happens in the primary somatosensory cortex?
The primary somatosensory cortex is
responsible for processing somatic sensations
. These sensations arise from receptors positioned throughout the body that are responsible for detecting touch, proprioception (i.e. the position of the body in space), nociception (i.e. pain), and temperature.
What would damage to the somatosensory cortex do?
Finally, somatosensory cortex damage can
produce numbness or tingling/prickling sensations in certain parts of the body
(i.e. paresthesia). Since the face and hands have the most receptors and take up the largest area of the cortex, they are vulnerable to numbness and/or tingling.
What does right somatosensory cortex do?
The somatosensory cortex is a part of your brain that
receives and processes sensory information from the entire body
. Other names of somatosensory cortex include somesthetic area and somatic sensory area. touch, pain, and vibration from the entire body.
What is somatosensory function?
Somatosensory function is
the ability to interpret bodily sensation
. Sensation takes a number of forms, including touch, pressure, vibration, temperature, itch, tickle, and pain.
What is the main function of primary somatosensory cortex?
The primary somatosensory cortex (S1) plays a critical role in
processing afferent somatosensory input and contributes to the integration of sensory and motor signals necessary for skilled movement
.
Where is the primary somatosensory cortex?
The primary somatosensory cortex (SI) is located in
the anterior part of the parietal lobe
, where it constitutes the postcentral gyrus.
What disorders are associated with the somatosensory cortex?
Importantly, studies conducted in individuals suffering from mental disorders associated with abnormal emotional regulation, such as
major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia
, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and panic disorders, specific phobia, obesity, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, have found …
What happens to pain when the primary somatosensory cortex is lesioned?
In addition to the somatosensory cortex, painful stimuli activate neurons in the rostral cingulate gyrus and the insula. Consequently,
all pain sensation is not lost
when the primary somatosensory cortex is damaged.
What happens if your prefrontal cortex is damaged?
A person with damage to the prefrontal cortex might have
blunted emotional responses
, for instance. They might even become more aggressive and irritable, and struggle to initiate activities. Finally, they might perform poorly on tasks that require long-term planning and impulse inhibition.
What are the two major somatosensory pathways?
The somatosensory system consists of the two main paired pathways that take somatosensory information up to the brain:
the medial lemniscal or posterior pathway, and the spinothalamic or anterolateral pathway
. The somatosensory pathways are made up of a relay of four neurons.
What are the three major functions of the somatosensory system?
Somatic information is provided by receptors distributed throughout the body. One of the earliest investigators of the bodily senses, Charles Sherrington, noted that the somatosensory system serves three major functions:
proprioception, exteroception, and interoception
.
Why is somatosensory important?
The somatosensory system is distributed throughout all major parts of our body.
It is responsible for sensing touch, temperature, posture, limb position, and more
. It includes both sensory receptor neurons in the periphery (eg., skin, muscle, and organs) and deeper neurons within the central nervous system.
What is the main organ of the somatosensory system?
For the tactile component of the somatosensory system,
the skin covering the entire body
, head and face functions as the touch receptor organ, whereas joint tissues, muscles and tendons act as the proprioception receptor organs.
What is somatosensory disorder?
any disorder of sensory information received from the skin and deep tissue of the body that is associated with impaired or abnormal somatic sensation
. Such disorders may affect proprioception and the perception of pain, touch, or temperature.
What does somatosensory mean?
describes sensations from the body
(e.g., touch, pain) as opposed to sensations from specialized sense organs like the eyes or ears.
