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Whither Sensory Specificity?

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Book cover Thermoreception and Temperature Regulation

Abstract

The ability of a multi-cellular organism to survive in a state of dynamic equilibrium with its environment depends on sufficient accurate knowledge of that environment to enable it to respond appropriately. The body contains many sensors capable of sampling different parameters of the environment, both external and internal, and many of these sensory systems have been studied in detail. The question of the “specificity” of response is quite fundamental in physiology. It is not, however, either theoretically or practically possible to correlate the activity of a single receptor, or even a group of receptors, with the autonomic and behavioural thermoregulatory responses of an organism, since this requires the activation of many receptors in different parts of the body. In man, however, there is the possibility that single receptor activation can be correlated with conscious perception. This review considers the long-standing conflict of evidence on the specificity of sensory receptors and the progress that has been made in correlating receptor activity with sensation, and where these issues now stand.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Preclinical, Veterinary Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Summerhall, Edinburgh, EH9 1QH, UK

    A. Iggo

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  1. A. Iggo
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics Research, Babraham Hall, Cambridge, CB2 4AT, UK

    J. Bligh

  2. FB Humanmedizin Institut für Normale und Pathologische Physiologie, Phillips Universität, Deutschhausstraße 2, 3550, Marburg, Germany

    K. Voigt

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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Iggo, A. (1990). Whither Sensory Specificity?. In: Bligh, J., Voigt, K., Braun, H.A., Brück, K., Heldmaier, G. (eds) Thermoreception and Temperature Regulation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75076-2_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75076-2_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-75078-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-75076-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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