Meissner corpuscle
Papillary dermis · detail · Rapidly adapting I Light touch Fingertips
Encapsulated rapidly adapting type I mechanoreceptor packed into the dermal papillae of glabrous skin, signalling light moving touch and low-frequency flutter through A-beta fibres.
Traced from the start
Detail
- Modality
- Light dynamic touch and flutter at roughly 5-50 Hz; adapts within milliseconds so it reports change, not steady pressure
- Distribution
- Glabrous skin only, densest at the fingertips and lips, matching the two-point discrimination gradient
- Afferent
- Large myelinated A-beta fibres travelling in the dorsal column-medial lemniscus pathway
When it goes wrong
Age-related loss of corpuscles and of A-beta fibres
Falling fine touch acuity and widening two-point discrimination, contributing to loss of manual dexterity and to falls in the elderly
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