Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 4.36.
Each area which is encircled by a black line shows a receptive field (the
area where the sensory receptors are innervated by the involved nerve fibers)
Fig. 4.37.
The pressure that is applied to the skin (upper wave) and the response
(signal) of the nerve fiber from a single mechanoreceptor unit (lower wave)
4.7.4
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Microneurography
The advantages and disadvantages of microneurography are listed below.
Microneurography has two major advantages that cannot be achieved by
other methods.
The first advantage is that the technique is not very invasive, and expe-
riments can be performed on subjects who are awake. Sensations are very
subjective and, at the moment, we have no good way to evaluate the evoked
somatic sensations objectively and quantitatively. Currently, since the sub-
