Here, we provide evidence for the neural crest origin of mammalian Merkel cells. Together with nerve terminals, Merkel cells form slowly adapting cutaneous mechanoreceptors that transduce steady indentation in hairy and glabrous skin. We have determined the ontogenetic origin of Merkel cells in Wnt1-cre/R26R compound transgenic mice, in which neural crest cells are marked indelibly. Merkel cell...

OBJECTIVE To determine if peripheral neuropathology exists among the innervation of cutaneous arterioles and arteriole-venule shunts (AVS) in fibromyalgia (FM) patients. SETTING Cutaneous arterioles and AVS receive a convergence of vasoconstrictive sympathetic innervation, and vasodilatory small-fiber sensory innervation. Given our previous findings of peripheral pathologies in chronic pain c...

TAC-Cell is a custom-built somatosensory stimulator that delivers pneumatic cutaneous tactile inputs to virtually any skin target on the body and by virtue of its non-ferrous materials is compatible with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) brain scanners. In this study, we describe the method to measure apparent skin displacement induced by TAC-Cell sti...

Persistent dermatomycosis (ringworm) caused by Trichophyton verrucosum affected 20 dairy calves aged between 3 months and 1 year and housed together. The infection also spread to 2 animal attendants working among the calves. The major clinical lesions observed on the affected calves were extensive alopecia and/or circumscribed thick hairless skin patches affecting the head, neck, flanks and lim...

This review analyses whether skin temperature represents ambient temperature and serves as a feedforward signal for the thermoregulation system, or whether it is one of the body's temperatures and provides feedback. The body is covered mostly by hairy (non-glabrous) skin, which is typically insulated from the environment (with clothes in humans and with fur in non-human mammals). Thermal signal...

We investigated the tactile perception of a liquid surface that can be clearly felt as a thin line by a hand moving in the liquid. Although this phenomenon was first reported by Meissner in 1859 and is quite well known, the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. This study aimed to clarify how we perceive the boundary between the atmosphere and water as a cutaneous sensation. We found that ...

Vibrotactile thresholds for the glabrous skin of the hand and for the hairy skin of the arm are investigated as a function of frequency in the range from 40 to 2 000 Hz, using a heavy vibrator. These thresholds are expressed as equivalent bone-conduction loss and compared with vibrotactile thresholds determined with bone vibrators on the arm and mastoid for normally hearing and severely hearing...