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The somatosensory system is the sensory system of somatic sensation. This article or section may be confusing for some readers, and should be edited to be clearer or more simplified. ...

A more complex concept comes into play when the term is used in reference to human beings. The sense of touch is mediated by the somatosensory system. Touch may simply be considered one of five human senses; however, when a person touches something or somebody this gives rise to various feelings: the perception of pressure (hence shape, softness, texture, vibration, etc.), relative temperature and sometimes pain. Thus the term "touch" is actually the combined term for several senses. In medicine, the colloquial term "touch" is usually replaced with somatic senses, to better reflect the variety of mechanisms involved. Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Humans, or human beings, are biologically classified as bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin for wise man or thinking man) under the family Hominidae (the great apes). ... Senses are the physiological methods of perception. ... A feeling can refer to: sensation related to one of several senses (tactition, thermoception, nociception, equilibrioception, proprioception); See also: touch, qualia emotion; intuition; Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, feeling means you tend to put a higher priority on personal factors than impersonal factors; Feelings, the name of a 1997 David Byrne... Pressure (symbol: p) is the force per unit area acting on a surface in a direction perpendicular to that surface. ... In geometry, two sets have the same shape if one can be transformed to another by a combination of translations, rotations and uniform scalings. ... You may be looking for something of the following: computer software hard Kelly v. ... ... See Oscillator (disambiguation) for particular types of oscillation and oscillators. ... Temperature is also the name of a song by Sean Paul. ... Pain is an unpleasant sensation which may be associated with actual or potential tissue damage and which may have physical and emotional components. ...

Somatic sensation consists of the various sensory receptors that trigger the experiences labelled as touch or pressure, temperature (warm or cold), pain (including itch and tickle), and the sensations of muscle movement and joint position including posture, movement, and facial expression (collectively also called proprioception). To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Pressure (symbol: p) is the force per unit area acting on a surface in a direction perpendicular to that surface. ... Temperature is also the name of a song by Sean Paul. ... Pain is an unpleasant sensation which may be associated with actual or potential tissue damage and which may have physical and emotional components. ... An itch (Latin: pruritus) is a sensation felt on an area of skin that makes a person or animal want to scratch it. ... While not moving, a human can be in one of the following main positions. ... Look up movement in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The term Movement has a variety of different meanings related to motion: Physical movement between points in space (A to B). The amount of movement is called distance. ...

The primary somatosensory area in the human cortex is located in the postcentral gyrus (Parietal Lobe). Areas of this part of the human brain map to certain areas of the body, dependent on the amount or importance of somatosensory input from that area. For example, there is a large area of cortex devoted to sensation in the hands, while the back has a much smaller area. This somatosensory map is termed the homunculus. The lateral postcentral gyrus is a prominent structure in the parietal lobe of the human brain and an important landmark. ... The human brain. ... Hartsoekers homunculus The concept of a homunculus (Latin for little man, sometimes spelled homonculus, plural homunculi) is often used to illustrate the functioning of a system. ...

The somatosenses include: Cutaneous (skin), kinesthesia (movement) and organic senses, of which the first two are better known. Organic senses have to do with sensory information from the organs, such as stomach aches. Stomach ache is a non-medical term used to describe various forms of nausea or abdominal pain. ...

See also

• Special senses
• Mechanoreceptor
• Nociceptor
• Muscle spindle
• Proprioception

In medicine, Special senses is the term used to describe the senses of vision, hearing, taste, and smell. ... A mechanoreceptor is a sensory receptor that responds to mechanical pressure or distortion. ... A nociceptor is a sensory receptor that sends signals that cause the perception of pain in response to potentially damaging stimulus. ... A muscle spindle is a specialized muscle structure innervated by both sensory and motor neuron axons. ... Proprioception (from Latin proprius, meaning ones own and perception) is the sense of the position of parts of the body, relative to other neighbouring parts of the body. ...

External links

• Somatosensory & Motor Research
• Overview
• Somatic vs. Special senses