Nerve supply to the skin the kind of sensory inputs which project to a specific region of the primary somatosensory cortex. Groups of nerve terminals located in the different layers of the skin are categorized depending on whether the skin is hairy, nonhairy, or an exposed mucous membrane. The hairy parts of the body such as the forearm or the leg have two groups of nerve endings: those that end along with the hair follicles, and also with the arborizations of unmyelinated axons which are referred to as “free” nerve endings because they are served by both myelinated and unmyelinated axons. Nonhairy skin, such as
Nerve supply to the skin made possible by the action of specific sensory fibers located on the skin, as well as the distinct pathways they take to the central nervous system. The skin, which is part of the integumentary system, plays an important role in the somatic nervous system because it contains a range of nerve endings that react to heat and cold, touch, pressure, vibration, and tissue injury. The central nervous system (CNS) works with the peripheral nervous system in cutaneous innervation. The CNS is responsible for processing the information it receives from the cutaneous nerves that detect a given stimulus, and then identifying