mechanoreceptor

A mechanoreceptor is a sensory receptor that responds to mechanical pressure or distortion. There are four main types in the glabrous skin of humans: Pacinian corpuscles, Meissner's corpuscles, Merkel's discs, and Ruffini corpuscles. There are also mechanoreceptors in the hairy skin, and the hair cells in the cochlea are the most sensitive mechanoreceptors, transducing air pressure waves into sound.

Mechanoreceptors are primary neurons that respond to mechanical stimuli by firing action potentials. Peripheral transduction is believed to occur in the end-organs.

In somatosensory transduction, the afferent neurons transmit the message through synapses in the dorsal column nuclei, where the second order neurons send the signal to the thalamus and synapse with the third order neurons in the ventrobasal complex. The third order neurons then send the signal to the somatosensory cortex.

Image by cesar2mendez.