Experimental brain research. Experimentelle Hirnforschung. Expérimentation cérébrale
-
Unit activity was recorded percutaneously by microelectrodes from 69 nerve fibres innervating the hairy skin of the back of the hand in 6 awake human subjects. Twelve fibres had no receptive field on the skin, twenty-one fibres could be classified as rapidly adapting (RA) and thiry-six fibres as slowly adapting (SA) mechanoreceptive fibres. Four SA fibres has a spontaneous discharge in absence of stimulation. ⋯ Intensity functions of SA fibres could be described by power functions with exponents varying between 0.31-1.23. Most RA and SA fibres were entrained by vibratory stimuli. The results indicate that the receptors in the human hairy skin do not differ considerably in their characteristics from the receptors in the human glabrous skin or from animal receptors in the hairy skin.