Impact of Skin Hyper- and Visco-elastic Properties on Neural Mechanotransduction of the Slowly Adapting Type I Afferent

The Stimulus-Response Transformation of the SAI Tactile Afferent is Modulated by the Number and Arrangement of Merkel Cells in its Compound End Organ

“…Skin thickness from 147 to 433 µm were simulated with 57 µm increment changes to thickness. This range was experimentally observed for rest and active stages over a period of five weeks [57].…”

“…A similar effect is expected where increased skin stiffness yields higher mechanical quantities local to the SAI end organ, and therefore higher firing rates. While skin stiffness does not seem to depend on hair cycle stage [57] More recently, skin mechanics modelers have sought to understand the link between SAI afferent responses and nonlinear skin mechanics [18], skin macrostructure [16] , and skin microstructure [40].…”

“…as expected should skin change independently, in contrast to the previous experiment where skin changed dependent on the end organ. Two finite element models are utilized, reflecting the median values for rest (225 µm) and active stages (331 µm) [57]. Rest and active stage end organs are then simulated with these skin thicknesses.…”