Touch

High school (ages 12+)
Human Body

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/touch

1. What is the primary pathways?
2. What is the cortical representation?
3. What are the tiny helpers in our skin that tell us about hugs, hot sun, and tickles?
4. How does our brain know where something touches our skin?

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the primary pathways?Dorsal column-medial lemniscus pathway and spinothalamic tract
2. What is the cortical representation?Somatotopic organization in the somatosensory cortex
3. What are the tiny helpers in our skin that tell us about hugs, hot sun, and tickles?They are special cells called sensory receptors. Examples are Merkel cells, Meissner's corpuscles, Pacinian corpuscles, Ruffini endings, thermoreceptors, and nociceptors. They turn touch, heat, and pain into signals for our brain.
4. How does our brain know where something touches our skin?The signals travel up nerves to the spinal cord, then to the brainstem and thalamus. From there they reach the somatosensory cortex, which has a body map that shows where each part of the body is touched.

Somatotopic Organization: The mapping of the body's surface onto specific areas of the brain's cortex.
Neuroplasticity: The brain's ability to change and adapt its structure and function in response to experience.
Stereognosis: The ability to recognize objects by touch alone, without visual input.