Traditionally it has been spoken of the five senses that the human body has, although lovers of the paranormal will be able to say six. It was popularly spoken of hearing, sight, taste, smell, and touch until now. However, given the enormous advances in science and the fact that we can now know much more about our bodies than we did until now, the scientific community has been reconsidering this old classification in recent years. Either because the senses are not separated from each other as previously thought, either because there are more senses than we believed, or because the classification was not entirely clear today, different types of hierarchies are established.
One of these new classifications is the one we will talk about now, keep reading this FastlyHealarticle to discover the Definition of exteroceptive.
What is exteroceptive
Exteroceptive refers to all those stimuli that have their origin outside our body and to the sensory receptors that receive them.
Exteroceptive receptors, which enable exteroceptive sensory modality pathways, are found in the skin, either in the dermis or the epidermis. The exteroceptive system is a set of sensory receptors formed by sensory terminal organs distributed throughout the skin and mucosa that receive stimuli from external sources and the afferent nerves that carry sensory information related to the central nervous system.
Unlike the proprioceptive system, which receives sensory impulses that are generated within the body itself, the exteroceptive system receives stimuli external to the body.
Although most of the exteroceptors are in the skin, both in the dermis and in the epidermis, we have them distributed throughout the body, also occupying the place of what we have traditionally called the senses.
Thus, the exteroceptive system acts in the eyes, as a receptor of light, in the ears, as an acoustic receiver from the outside, in the smell, perceiving the olfactory stimuli of everything that surrounds us, or in the taste, as a receptor of taste and temperature. Of substances.
The perception of temperature is precisely one of the main actions carried out by the exteroceptive system of our body to guarantee that our body is never at risk of freezing or suffering from burns or dehydration.
The sense of touch is in charge of receiving the mechanical actions of pressure on our body and is present in our skin; it is also in the skin where the most significant amount of Cause corpuscles and Ruffini corpuscles are current, the exteroreceivers in charge of perceiving both cold and the heat. These receptors are activated when the temperature of the skin changes due to changes in the exterior or the interior of the body and are the culprits that we are much more sensitive to cold than to heat since while we have 30,000 Ruffini corpuscles, there are more than 250,000 heat receptors throughout our body.
Another of the main functions of the exteroceptive system is the perception of pain when the cause of this is found in something other than the body itself. Pain is one of the mechanisms that our body has to alert us when an action or any other activity occurs that could put us at risk. In the event of any pressure, a burn, or strain, the exteroceptive system is activated and sends a signal to the brain for the pain to stop.
This article is merely informative, at FastlyHeal .com we do not have the power to prescribe medical treatments or make any type of diagnosis. We invite you to see a doctor in the case of presenting any type of condition or discomfort.
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I am a Surgeon with a diploma in comprehensive ultrasound and surgical care residency, an area I am specializing in. During the exercise of my profession, I have realized the need for patients to know the diseases they suffer, and I can tell you that a large part of their complications is due to a lack of information. Being a health web writer allows me to transmit my experience, without borders, to all those readers eager for knowledge, educate them in the prevention of diseases and promote a healthy lifestyle.