RT Book, Section A1 Waxman, Stephen G. SR Print(0) ID 1186189999 T1 Somatosensory Systems T2 Clinical Neuroanatomy, 29e YR 2020 FD 2020 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9781260452358 LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1186189999 RD 2024/11/08 AB Input from the somatosensory systems informs the organism about events impinging on it. Sensation can be divided into four types: superficial, deep, visceral, and special. Superficial sensation is concerned with touch, pain, temperature, and two-point discrimination. Deep sensation includes muscle and joint position sense (proprioception), deep muscle pain, and vibration sense. Visceral sensations are relayed by autonomic afferent fibers and include hunger, nausea, and visceral pain (see Chapter 20). The special senses—smell, vision, hearing, taste, and equilibrium—are conveyed by cranial nerves (see Chapters 8, 15, 16, and 17). In addition, nociceptive sensation or pain-signaling serves to warn the organism when there is contact with noxious or potentially damaging elements in the environment, or when tissue is damaged.