Tactile corpuscle

Tactile corpuscles (or Meissner's corpuscles; discovered by anatomist Georg Meissner (1829–1905) and Rudolf Wagner) are a type of mechanoreceptor. They are a type of nerve ending in the skin that is responsible for sensitivity to light touch. In particular, they have their highest sensitivity (lowest threshold) when sensing vibrations between 10 and 50 Hertz. They are rapidly adaptive receptors. They are most concentrated in thick hairless skin, especially at the finger pads.'Meissner's corpuscle' labeled at upper rightDiagrammatic sectional view of the skin.light micrograph Tactile corpuscles (or Meissner's corpuscles; discovered by anatomist Georg Meissner (1829–1905) and Rudolf Wagner) are a type of mechanoreceptor. They are a type of nerve ending in the skin that is responsible for sensitivity to light touch. In particular, they have their highest sensitivity (lowest threshold) when sensing vibrations between 10 and 50 Hertz. They are rapidly adaptive receptors. They are most concentrated in thick hairless skin, especially at the finger pads. Tactile corpuscles are encapsulated unmyelinated nerve endings, which consist of flattened supportive cells arranged as horizontal lamellae surrounded by a connective tissue capsule. The corpuscle is 30–140 μm in length and 40–60 μm in diameter.