Mechanoreceptors

Mechanoreceptors detect stimuli such as touch, pressure, vibration, and sound from the external and internal environments. They contain primary sensory neurons that respond to changes in mechanical displacement, usually in a localized region at the tip of a sensory dendrite. Mechanoreceptor neurons are often surrounded by complex extracellular structures that couple displacement to the cell membrane, where mechanically activated ion channels create a receptor current. The resulting receptor potential is usually encoded into action potentials by voltage-activated ion channels. Many of these mechanosensory neurons also receive efferent synaptic inputs from the central nervous system that modulate their sensitivity and possibly their dynamic responses.