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Somatosensory Mechanoreceptors

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Human skin carries several mechanoreceptor types tuned to different touch qualities: Merkel's disks for light touch, Meissner's corpuscles for touch and low-frequency vibration, Ruffini endings for stretch, Pacinian corpuscles for deep pressure.

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Merkel's disks, dense in fingertips, give the fine edge-sensitivity needed for tasks like typing.

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These receptors are unevenly distributed — glabrous skin carries far more than hair-covered skin.