Neural mechanisms which discriminate events on the skin

This review examines the historical development of concepts of nervous system organization with special reference to the skin sensory system. The commonly held view that the modalities of sensation are produced solely by the initial filtering action of the receptor organs is shown not to fit the observed physiology of the first and second cells in the sensory pathway. Instead, it is proposed that every discriminably different cutaneous perception is produced by a unique space-time pattern of nerve impulses. The mechanisms employed by the nervous system for generating and analyzing space-time patterns of impulses are discussed.