Physiological roles of gentle mechanical skin stimulation apart from sensation and recognition
SKIN
Skin afferent inputs are considered important for sensation and recognition, however, there are also skin afferents that do not contribute to such sensory functions. Previous studies have shown that some kind of gentle mechanical skin stimulation modulates motor and autonomic functions in animals, in whom consciousness was eliminated by anesthesia and the influence of sensation and emotions were excluded [Electrophysiologically recording a single unit activity of skin afferents in anesthetized rats showed no difference in Aβ-afferent responses to skin stimulation with or without microcones, however, higher Aδ- and C-afferent activity with microcone stimulation [