Skip to main content

Two-Point Discrimination and Receptor Density

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

A two-point discrimination test estimates mechanoreceptor density by finding the closest spacing at which two simultaneous touches are felt as separate rather than one.

Show

Fingertips distinguish two points spaced much closer together than the back can, reflecting denser receptor coverage.

Watch for

Feeling one point where two touched means both fell within a single receptor's receptive field, not that only one receptor exists there.