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This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access. William Montagna 1 Albert M. Kligman 2 Kay S. Carlisle 1 1. The hair root plexus surrounding the base of the hair follicle senses a disturbance, and then transmits the information to the central nervous system brain and spinal cord , which can then respond by activating the skeletal muscles of your eyes to see the ant and the skeletal muscles of the body to act against the ant.
The skin acts as a sense organ because the epidermis, dermis, and the hypodermis contain specialized sensory nerve structures that detect touch, surface temperature, and pain. These receptors are more concentrated on the tips of the fingers, which are most sensitive to touch, especially the Meissner corpuscle tactile corpuscle Figure 1 , which responds to light touch, and the Pacinian corpuscle lamellated corpuscle , which responds to vibration.
Merkel cells, seen scattered in the stratum basale, are also touch receptors. In addition to these specialized receptors, there are sensory nerves connected to each hair follicle, pain and temperature receptors scattered throughout the skin, and motor nerves innervate the arrector pili muscles and glands.
This rich innervation helps us sense our environment and react accordingly. Body temperature is primarily regulated by an area in the brain known as the hypothalamus. The integumentary system helps regulate body temperature through its tight association with the sympathetic nervous system, the division of the nervous system involved in our fight-or-flight responses. The sympathetic nervous system is continuously monitoring body temperature and initiating appropriate motor responses.
Recall that sudoriferous glands, accessory structures to the skin, secrete sweat to cool the body when it becomes warm. Even when the body does not appear to be noticeably sweating, approximately mL of sweat insensible perspiration are secreted a day. If the body becomes excessively warm due to high temperatures, vigorous activity Figure 2 , or a combination of the two, sweat glands will be stimulated by the sympathetic nervous system to produce large amounts of sweat, as much as 0.
When the sweat evaporates from the skin surface, the body is cooled as body heat is dissipated. In addition to sweating, arterioles in the dermis dilate so that excess heat carried by the blood can dissipate through the skin and into the surrounding environment Figure 2. This accounts for the skin redness that many people experience when exercising. Figure 2. During strenuous physical activities, such as skiing a or running c , the dermal blood vessels dilate and sweat secretion increases b.
These mechanisms prevent the body from overheating. In contrast, the dermal blood vessels constrict to minimize heat loss in response to low temperatures b. When body temperatures drop, the arterioles constrict to minimize heat loss, particularly in the ends of the digits and tip of the nose.
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