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Somatosensory Neurons – Unlocking the Neural Code of Touch
  • Invertebrate
  • Grade 6+

Somatosensory Neurons – Unlocking the Neural Code of Touch

Ever wondered how your body turns touch into language your brain can understand? This experiment reveals how gentle tactile stimulation triggers precise patterns of neural activity.

Devices and Accessories1

About the Experiment

What Will You Learn?

What Will You Learn?

  • How touch activates somatosensory neurons.
  • The role of mechanoreceptors in converting physical stimuli into neural signals.
  • How to record and analyze neural responses to gentle tactile inputs.
Background

Background

Mechanoreceptors detect touch, pressure and vibration, turning these mechanical events into electrical impulses. In cockroach sensory hairs, each gentle tap elicits a reproducible spike train, revealing how the nervous system encodes tactile information.

Procedure

  1. Preparation:

    1. Anesthetize a cockroach briefly and remove one leg: grip it firmly at the femur and pull it off in one quick, fast motion so it separates cleanly at the joint. A slow pull can drag internal tissue out with the leg and harm the cockroach.
    2. Mount the leg securely on cork or balsa wood.
    Preparation:

  2. Electrode Placement:

    1. Insert two electrode pins into the area rich in sensory hairs.
    2. Push the pins in far enough that they stay put—no gel is needed, and keep the leg surface dry between the pins.
    Electrode Placement:

  3. Baseline Recording:

    1. Connect the electrodes to the Neuron SpikerBox.
    2. Record a brief baseline of spontaneous neural activity.
    Baseline Recording:

  4. Tactile Stimulation:

    1. Gently touch sensory hairs with a fine toothpick.
    2. Observe spike trains corresponding to each touch.
    3. Repeat multiple times to confirm consistent responses.
    Tactile Stimulation:

Results & Analysis

Analyze spike timing and frequency after each tactile event. Compare changes when varying stimulus location or force to understand receptor sensitivity and neural coding of touch.

NGSS alignment

Performance expectations

Firing rate transmits stimulus intensity to the brain.

  • MS-LS1-8 Gather and synthesize information that sensory receptors respond to stimuli by sending messages to the brain for immediate behavior or storage as memories.

  • HS-LS1-2 Develop and use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific functions within multicellular organisms.

Science and engineering practices

  • 3 Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

    Touch sensory hairs and record the spike trains, repeating to confirm.

  • 4 Analyzing and Interpreting Data

    Analyze spike timing and frequency after each touch, varying location and force.

Crosscutting concepts

  • Cause and Effect

    Pressure sets firing rate.

  • Structure and Function

    Mechanoreceptors in each hair turn bending into spikes; where you touch changes the response.

Disciplinary core ideas

  • LS1.D Information Processing

    Sensory transmission.

  • LS1.A Structure and Function

    Receptor structure and function.

Performance expectations, crosscutting concepts and core ideas from Hands-On Neuroscience Curriculum Overview, Unit 1, module 1.2, whose core lab this is. The practices are the ones this page asks students to do.