Final answer:
Fast and Frees provide sensations of touch, pain, temperature, and proprioception, which are detected by specialized sensory receptors in the skin and other body parts. The testing of these sensations can involve the use of tools like cotton applicators and tuning forks, and these tests help to understand sensory functions in various parts of the body.
Step-by-step explanation:
Fast and Frees are aimed at providing various sensations related to the somatosensory system, which includes the perception of touch, pain, heat, and cold. Tools such as a broken end of a cotton-tipped applicator can be used to test for pain perception. To evaluate the sensation of vibration stimuli, an oscillating tuning fork may be placed against bone prominent features. In addition, sensations based on temperature can be perceived when the metal of the tuning fork contacts the skin without vibration, potentially causing a cold stimulus.
The sense of tactile movement can be assessed using either the soft end of the applicator or a fingertip, by drawing the stimulus across the skin. Furthermore, proprioception, which is the body's ability to perceive its position and movement, can be gauged by moving a patient's fingers or toes and asking if they sense the action. Receptor types such as Merkel's disks, Meissner's corpuscles, Ruffini endings, hair receptors, and Pacinian corpuscles are designed to detect various tactile stimuli including light touch, vibration, skin stretch, and pressure.
Lastly, the sensation of temperature is processed by different types of thermoreceptors that can progress from tolerable to painful if the stimulus becomes too intense. The perception of pain can overlap with that of extreme temperatures because similar neural pathways are involved in their transmission to the brain.