General Properties of Mechanoreceptors that Signal the Position of the Integument, Teeth, Tactile Hairs and Joints

Abstract

Publisher Summary Receptors that signal the position of some part of an animal's body are usually organized in an opponent fashion. The activity of one population of receptors increases as the body part deviates progressively from some intermediate (rest) position toward one extreme of the range and the activity of another (the opponent) population of receptors decreases. The converse pattern of activity occurs when the body part deviates from the rest position in the opposite direction. This is the method whereby receptors signal the positions of joints, teeth, vibrissae, and the skin in mammals. Joint position in arthropods is also signalled in this fashion. In a few cases, one of the opponent receptor populations may be absent. Rarely has it been seen that individual receptors respond over only a limited portion of the range at intermediate positions. It is apparent, therefore, that position signalling with opponent populations is widely used by animals that are distantly related phylogenetically.