There are a great many varieties of mechanical receptors in animals, but best known are the receptors that mediate touch, the variety of hair cell receptors in vertebrates that mediate hearing (the acoustico-lateralis system), and the muscle spindle proprioceptors that monitor the state of muscle contraction. The basic mechanism by which a stimulus is converted to an electrical signal in cells...
TITLE: primate (mammal)SECTION:
The skin of the primate hand is well adapted for tactile discrimination. Meissner’s corpuscles, the principal receptors for touch in hairless skin, are best developed in apes and humans, but they can be found in all primates. Structurally correlated with a high level of tactile sensitivity are certain anatomic features of the skin of the hands and feet, such as the absence of pads on the palms...