Meissner corpuscles
Skin pressure detectors
Meissner corpuscles are sensory receptors in the skin that detect light touch and texture changes.
Found in hairless areas like fingertips, lips, and palms, they respond to gentle pressure and low-frequency vibrations—the sensation when fabric brushes your hand or fingers trace a surface.
Their high concentration in fingertips enables fine tactile discrimination.
- touchPerceiving through physical contact
- skinBody's outer layer
- fingertipsTerminal phalanx pads
- sensationPerceived stimulus or phenomenon
- pressureForce upon contact
tactile · nerve · receptor · sensitive · gentle · texture · dermis · epidermis · sensory · feeling · brushing · caress · papillae · mechanoreceptor · delicate · tickle · palms · soles
- touchtouch, feel, touching, caress, feeling
- sensory systemschemoreception, photoreception, proprioception, olfaction, gustation
- sensory receptorsmechanoreceptors, pain receptors, chemoreceptors, proprioceptors, baroreceptors
- body cellsred blood cells, white blood cells, erythrocytes, fat cell, leukocytes
receptive field depth and size
Meissner corpusclesPacinian corpuscles
Onion-layered pressure receptors
corpuscle, corpuscles, corps, corpus, corporeal, corporate, incorporate, incorporated, incorporating