ANALYSIS OF SENSATION IN TERMS OF THE NERVE IMPULSE

TLDR

Previous work identified two nerve fiber groups linked to touch and pricking pain, yet the absence of a unifying system has left the physiology of sensation confusing. The study aims to systematize sensory phenomena by focusing on their simplest manifestations outside the skin and central nervous system. The distinctness of the two groups involved lends conclusive support to the theory of specificity of sensory pathways.

Abstract

In a previous communication1the two groups of fibers in a nerve of the skin associated with touch and pricking pain were identified. The distinctness of the two groups involved lends conclusive support to the theory of specificity of sensory pathways. However, to associate other afferent effects with the specific fiber groups involved in their mediation is not the most cogent purpose in pursuing these studies further. What is needed in this field is a systematization of the phenomena of sensation. Until some unifying system is devised the multiplicity of data and the variety of methods by which they have been accumulated render the physiology of sensation only the more confusing. We believe that these phenomena can be most profitably analyzed where their manifestations are the simplest; not in the skin, where even the character of the sense organs is in dispute, and not in the central nervous system