Quick Facts
A tactile corpuscle is a rapidly adapting encapsulated nerve ending found in the dermal ridges of glabrous skin, particularly of the digits, lips, nipples, and genitalia. It is specialized for tactile discrimination (Dorland, 2011).
Related parts of the anatomy
Structure/Morphology
Tactile corpuscles, or Meissner corpuscles, are fast adapting mechanoreceptors. These receptors are found mostly in the forearm, lips and most condensed in thick hairless skin, particularly the finger pad.
Tactile corpuscles are cylindrical and are found in the dermal papillae of the dermis. Each corpuscle is encapsulated in connective tissue, with a central pore of flat Schwann cells stacked on top of each other (Arda, Goksugur and Tuzun, 2014).
Function
Tactile corpuscles are sensitive light touch and can easily detect the texture and shape of objects. Therefore, these corpuscles are the neural basis for reading Braille text.
References
Arda, O., Goksugur, N. and Tuzun, Y. (2014) 'Basic histological structure and functions of facial skin', Clin Dermatol, 32(1), pp. 3-13.
Dorland, W. (2011) Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. 32nd edn. Philadelphia, USA: Elsevier Saunders.
