The skin

• Structure and classification

• Sensory functions - skin sensory receptors

• Experimental results

• Functions of skin
 Structure and classification
• Body’s largest organ; covers area of 1.5 to 2.0
m2; accounts for about 15% of the total body
weight;

• Consist of 2 layers: epidermis (top) stratified,

and dermis (deep) connective tissue layer;

• Below the skin is the hypodermis (another

connective tissue layer, it is not a technical part
of the skin)
Structure and classification
 Structure and classification
• Most of the skin is 1-2mm thick. although eyelids(0.5mm) and 6mm
between the shoulder blades. variation is due to the thickness of the
dermis;
• Classification of the skin is based on the epidermis alone especially
the surface layer of dead cells (stratum corneum):
-thick: palm, soles, fingers, and toes;
has sweat glands but no hair follicles, nor oil glands
(sebaceous);
-thin: rest of the body;
has hair follicles, sebaceous glands and sweat glands;
• Hairless (Glabrous) skin has an epidermal layer of about 1.5 mm in
thickness and a dermis of about 3 mm
• Hairy skin has an epidermal layer of 0.07 mm in thickness and a
dermis of about 1-2 mm;
 Epidermis
• Consist of a surface comprised of dead cells
packed with keratin (a tough protein);

• Does not contain blood vessels. but it contains

sparse nerve endings for touch and pain (But
most sensations are due to the dermis);

• Cell types:
– Keratinocytes - produce keratin
– Melanocytes - produce melanin
– Dendritic (Langerhans) cells - immune function cells
 Epidermis
thick dead layer of keratinocytes

appears only in thick skin; with

flat keratinocytes

keratinocytes and dendritic cells

composed of layers of keratinocytes,

pushing the dead ones atop,
and live ones stay below.
and dendritic (langerhans) cells
(produced in the bone marrow and
surface to the epidermis to protect us
from patogens)

deepest layer with 3 cell types:

living keratinocytes
(metabolism, produce keratin),
melanocytes
(block UV and give skin colour),
and Tactile cells (Merkel)
Epidermis
 Dermis
• Composed mainly of collagen, but also contains elastic
reticular fibers, blood vessels, sweat glands, sebaceous
glands, hair follicles, nail roots, sensory nerve endings and
muscular tissue (facial expressions are due to the skeletal
muscle connection to the dermal collagen fibers to produce
smile, frown, eyebrow movement…)

• The boundaries of dermis vs epidermis is not strict, it’s like

cardboard ridges that merge together. In sensitive areas, the
dermis is more extended and pushed to the surface allowing
blood vessels and nerve endings to reach closer to the
surface (look at hand, front vs back)

• Functions: Pressure detection; metabolism (duplication of

cells)…
Dermis
 Hypodermis
• A sub dermal layer of adipose tissue or otherwise called
subcutaneous fat; which is made up of loose, fibrous
tissue, rich in blood vessels, lymphatic vessels and
nerves;

• The base of hair follicles and the coiled tubes of sweat

glands may also project down into the hypodermis;

• This is the layer that pads the body, serves as an energy

reservoir and provides thermal insulation, (it is
differently distributed in females vs males)
Hypodermis
 Sensory functions
• The skin is our most extensive sense organ. It is
equipped with a variety of nerve endings that react to
heat, cold, touch, texture, pressure, vibration, and tissue
injury (pain);

• The sensory receptors are specially abundant on the

face, palms, fingers, soles, nipples and genitals. there
are relatively few on the back, and joint areas;

• Some receptors are naked dendrites that penetrate into

the epidermis, and most others are limited to the dermis
and hypodermis, where specialized connective tissues
give the nerve cells more selective sensitivity to
particular stimuli
 Skin sensory receptors
The skin contains different types of STRUCTURE LOCATION FUNCTION
receptors. The mechanoreceptors on Free nerve Widespread, Pain,
endings Epidermis, temperature
the skin can be classified into several dermis
types: Merkel’s Epidermis Light touch,
(tactile) disks (basale) texture, edge,
shape
hair follicle Dermis, Detect motion
receptors around hair of hair
follicle
Meissner’s Dermis Light touch,
(tactile) (papillae of texture,
corpuscles fingertips, vibration (20-
palms, lips, 40 Hz range )
eyelids)
Ruffini Dermis, Responds to
endings hypodermis pressure on
skin
Pacinian Dermis, Deep touch,
(Lamellated) hypodermis Pressure,
corpuscles vibration (150-
300 Hz )
 Skin sensory receptors
• Hairy skin has different
mechanoreceptors than hairless
(glabrous) skin.

• Hairy:
- hair follicle receptors
- tactile disk
- pacinian corpuscles
- ruffini endings

• Non-hairy (glabrous):
- merkel’s disks
- meissner’s corpuscles
- pacinian corpuscles
- ruffini endings
 Skin sensory receptors
• The skin also has four kinds of thermal
receptors: warmth, cool, heat and cold. the last
two are regarded as nociceptors because they
also mediate the sensation of pain;

• Some nociceptors are also regarded as

polymodal nociceptors since they respond to
different types of stimuli (eg. some thermal
receptors also mediate the stimuli of itch and/or
pain).
 Receptor properties

• Adaptation
• Frequency Selectivity
• Change in Receptive fields
• Neuro Plasticity
 Adaptation
• The receptors in the skin have different rates of adaptation, by
adaptation we imply that the response to steady stimulation
decreases gradually after an onset of steady stimulation;

• In the skin there are Rapid Adapting receptors (RA), those

that respond best to rapid changes in the deformation of the
skin, and Slow Adapting receptors (SA), those to respond to
slow deformations as well as fast stimuli;

• Hence SA respond to the displacement of the skin, and RA

responds to the rate of displacement of the skin (velocity).
 Frequency Selectivity
• Different receptors respond to different
frequencies of vibrations. The different receptors
in the skin also have this characteristic

• For example, the Pacinian corpuscle responds

best to sinusoidal vibrations within a narrow
frequency range, whereas the hair follicles are
more sensitive to a wider range of vibrations.
 Change in receptive fields
• The medium that conducts the physical stimulus can
affect the receptive field (the range of the stimulus that a
receptor can detect) of a receptor; this happens because
the stimulus can be spread to other adjacent receptors.

• For example: only a selected area of the skin will feel

the effect of a light pin like object on it. but once there is
more pressure imposed on the object, then the skin
deformation broadens to cover other receptors, hence
responding to the stimuli. – in other words, the receptive
field of the skin will become broader when the stimulus
intensity is increased.
 Neuro Plasticity
• It has been shown that the function of the
somatosensory system can change as a
result of external circumstances such as
deprivation of input;

• In other words neuro plasticity refers to the

ability of the skin to become more or less
sensitive to stimulation depending on the
environment it has been exposed to.
 Experimental results
• Temporal differences
- Studies have been made to determine the limits of
human perception of the temporal aspects of tactile
stimuli and the results have been compared to other
senses.
- If two tactile stimuli are separated by about 5 ms or more,
they are perceived as separate events. If the
separation is less, they are perceived as one (For
hearing the threshold is about 0.01 ms and for vision
it is about 25 ms)

• Spatial differences:
- One of the most important measures used in those
studies is the two-point limen; If the distance
between the points of stimuli is less than the two-point
limen, the subject perceives the two points as one.
 Spatial resolution
Two-point discrimination is defined as the minimum distance between two stimuli
that can be perceived as separate stimuli.
 Functions of skin
• Body temperature regulation
• Protection by keratinized stratified
squamous epithelium
• Sensory reception
• Excretion
• Synthesis of Vitamin D
• Blood and moisture storage
Conclusion
 References
• Survey of Studies on Tactile Senses,
http://www.media.mit.edu/resenv/classes/MAS965/readings/pohja96su
rvey.pdf
• Our Sense of Touch, http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/twopt.html
• MIT Touch Lab Research,
http://touchlab.mit.edu/oldresearch/index.html
• Tactile/Kinesthetic Learning,
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/msh/llc/is/tkl.html
• Skin,
http://www.cytochemistry.net/microanatomy/skin/skin_and_mammary_
glands.htm
• The skin,
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/receptor.html
• Skin (Integument) and Tongue,
http://www.meddean.luc.edu/lumen/MedEd/Histo/frames/Histo13.html
• http:// www.fpnotebook.com/ DermSkinAnatomy.jpg