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touch
(tuch)
palpation with the finger.
the sense by which contact of an object with the skin is recognized. Touch is actually not a single sense, but several. There are separate nerves in the skin to register heat,
cold, pressure, pain, light touch, and coarse touch. These thousands of nerves are distributed unevenly over the body, so
that some areas are more responsive to cold, others to pain, and others to heat or pressure. Each of these types of nerves
has a different structure at the receiving end. A nerve for light touch has an elongated bulb-shaped end; one responsive to
cold ends in a squat bulb; one that registers warmth ends with what look like twisted threads; and a nerve for deep pressure
has an egg-shaped end. Pain receptors (nociceptors) have no protective sheath at all.
Copyright 2007. An Elsevier publication. All rights reserved.
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