Touch

1. Touch

2. Brought to You By: • Max • Jonathan • Amaad • Elise • Laura

3. Structure of Skin Senses

4. Skin Senses • Contains nerve endings • Can feel: warmth, touch, pain, and pleasure • More dense (sensitive) in the tongue, face and hands • Touch can stimulate sexual arousal

5. Phantom Limb - Contrary to the typical, archaic, misinformed belief of the general public, the sensations of pain and pleasure are developed and processed within the general vicinity of the Somato-sensory cortex, not the confines of the exterior ligaments…

6. Phantom Limb continued • Henceforth, an extraordinary (du du dududu) phenomena deemed the title “Phantom Limb” may occur in which a person who has faced the tribulation of amputation will perceive an impossible sensation of external experience.

7. Energy Transduction • Transfer of information from one place to another • Sensory neurons transfer messages through pathways to the brain

8. Gate-Control Theory • Transports with slow and fast fibers • Sensation can be blocked by “Spinal Gate” • Pain can be relieved by other stimulus • Pain not noticed in heat of the moment

9. Dealing With Pain • Pain is essential to survival • Pain relief can be achieved with drugs • Placebos are consistently effective • Endorphins are released to help with pain

10. Pain Tolerance • Pain threshold varies from person to person • Electric shocks range from 8 times voltage to inflict pain • High sensitivity to pain correlates with activation in the thalamus

11. Senses • Tactile Sense: input from the skin receptors about touch, pressure, temperature, pain, and movement of the hairs on the skin. • Kinesthetic sense: provides the brain with information on the relative positions of the parts of the body. • Vestibular Sense: input from the inner ear about equilibrium, gravitational changes, movement experiences, and position in space. • Cutaneous senses - the faculty by which external objects or forces are perceived through contact with the body

12. Vestibular Senses • Sense of balance • Controlled by copula in the ear canal • Rotation and oscillation of fluid in inner ear alters balance

13. Cutaneous Senses • Perception of external object through touch • Provides perception of weight and texture

14. Kinesthetic Sense • Sense of spatial awareness • Feeling of where you are • Why people are capable of identifying parts of body without eyes open

15. Common Sensory Disorders • Sensory integration disorder/dysfunction • Can lead to problems in relationships, self-esteem, emotions, learning, daily functions. • Hypersensitivity to touch (common in children): • Fear pf even light or unexpected touch • Frightened by something

16. Hypersensitivity To Touch (Tactile Defensiveness) • Upset by even light touch. • Wind, raindrops, brushing teeth. • Avoids certain textures, materials, foods, temperatures.

17. Hyposensitivity To Touch (Under-Responsive): • Not bothered by injuries, like cuts and bruises, and shows no distress with shots • Likes surfaces and textures that provide strong tactile stimulation. • Has a preference and craving for excessively spicy, sweet, sour, or salty foods.

18. Key Points Sensation in brain not skin. Different people have different pain thresholds Information transfer can be blocked by other messages Pain is actually useful

19. Vocabulary Words • Inner ear: essential part of the vertebrae organ of hearing and equilibrium that typically is located in the temporal bone. • Semicircular canals: any of the three curved tubular canals in the labyrinth of the ear, associated with the sense of equilibrium.  • Utricle: the larger of 2 divisions of the membranous labyrinth of the internal ear. • Sematosensory (sensory) cortex: any part of the brain that receives messages from a sense organ. • Kinesthetic sense: awareness of movement or activity in muscles or joints.

20. Vocabulary Continued • Phantom limb sensation: perception of sensations, usually including pain, in an arm or a leg after limb has been amputated. • Cutaneous sense: external object or forces are perceived through contact with body. • Pain: physical suffering or distress, as due to injury, illness, etc.  • Control theory: behavior is inspired by what a person wants most at any given time. (William Glasser) • Cutaneous receptors: a specialized cell or group of nerve endings that respond to a sensory stimulus. •  Gate control theory: an explanation for pain control that proposes we have a neural “gate”that can in some circumstances, block incoming pain signals.

21. Vocabulary Continued • Mechanoreceptors: primary neurons that respond to mechanical stimuli by firing action potentials. • Thermoreceptors: nerve ending sensitive to stimulation by heat • Nocioreceptors: respond to extreme harmful stimuli by producing the sensation of pain • Acupuncture: procedure of inserting and manipulating needles into various parts of the body to relieve pain. • Lamaze method: breathing and relaxing techniques used during childbirth.

22. Bibliography • Welcome to the Sensory Processing Disorder Resource Center (2010, February). In Sensory Processing Disorder. Retrieved November 10, 2010, from http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/ • Sense of Touch (2010). In Home Science Tools. Retrieved November 10, 2010, from http://www.hometrainingtools.com/skin-touch/a/1388/ • Your Sense of Touch (2010). In The Senses. Retrieved November 10, 2010, from http://library.thinkquest.org/3750/touch/touch.html