Surefire Tip

THE TIP
Today Dr. South covered some historical perspectives on psychological testing.  This (and other lectures) can sometimes be difficult to know exactly what to take notes on and what is just fluff.  Well something that really helped me was to print off the study guides for each unit.  Then, as you are listening to lecture try to answer the questions on the review.  If you know all the information on the study guides then you will be about as ready for each Exam as you can be.


WHY
The real reason this will be so helpful is because for each exam we went through each question and tailored the study guide for the specific questions on the exam.  To be real, it is not all of the information you will need.  You should still read and pay attention to class lecture.  But it is an amazing resource that is guaranteed to help.

Psych 370: Somatosensation 1

PROPRIOCEPTION

This is basically knowing where your body is in space.  Without proprioception you wouldn't be able to do something as simple as touching your nose with your finger.  Proprioception depends on your muscle tendons.

Perphipheral Neuropathy

This is widespread degeneration of large myelinated fibers in the PNS.  A man named Ian Waterman had this.  He had peripheral neuropathy and it degenerated until he had no proprioception.  Ian had to spend copious amounts of time in order to relearn how to move his body.

SKIN

Skin is not the largest organ but it is the heaviest organ.  Epidermus is the outer layer of skin.  The dermas is below and it contains mechanoreceptors that respond to different physical stimuli.  There are four different types of mechanoreceptors; merkel receptor, meissner corpuscle, ruff ini cylinder, and the pacinian corpuscle.

Merkel Receptror (slow SA1)
Disk shaped and located between the epidermis and the dermis.  These continue to fire even under continuous stimulation.

Meissner Corpuscle (rapid RA1)
Stack of flattened disks in the dermis. Fire at stimulus onset and offset but they adapt pretty rapidly.


Ruffini Cylinder (slow SA2)
Branched fibers inside a cylindrical capsule.  These continue to fire even under continuous stimulation.


Pacinian Corpuscle (rapid RA2)
Onion like capsule located deep in the skin.  Fire at stimulus onset and offset but they adapt pretty rapidly.

SPATIAL PROPERTIES

This is the idea that you get different detailed resolution from different parts of your skin.