PS262 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Gratin, Parietal Lobe, Posterior Grey Column
Document Summary
The largest and heaviest organ in the human body. Prevents body fluids from escaping and at the same time protects us by keeping bacteria, chemical agents and dirt from penetrating our bodies. Our main experience with skin is its visible surface which is actually a layer of tough dead skin cells. They have small receptive fields; a cutaneous receptive field is the area of the skin which when stimulated influences the firing of a neuron. The merkel receptor= is associated with sensing fine details. Fibers from both pathways cross over to the other side of the boyd during their temperature and pain. upward journey to the thalamus: ventrolateral nucleus: located in the thalamus- where most fibers synapse. Note: because the signals have crossed over: signals originating from the left side of the body reach the thalamus in the right hemisphere and signals from the right side reach the left hemisphere.
