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Signals from mechanoreceptors in your ______ hand end up in your ______ brain hemisphere?

User Holloway
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Final answer:

Mechanoreceptors in the left hand send signals to the right brain hemisphere due to the contralateral organization of the nervous system. These mechanoreceptors detect sensations like pressure and texture, with information traveling through the spinal cord to the brain's somatosensory cortex.

Step-by-step explanation:

Signals from mechanoreceptors in your left hand end up in your right brain hemisphere. This cross-mapping between the sides of the body and the brain hemispheres is due to the way our nervous system is organized. In the brain, the left hemisphere controls the motor and sensory functions of the right side of the body, and vice versa.

Mechanoreceptors are responsible for perceiving sensations such as pressure, vibrations, and texture. The ridges on your fingertips are full of these sensitive receptors which allow you to detect these sensations effectively. When you touch something with your left hand, mechanoreceptors in your left hand become active, and this sensory information travels through the ascending tracts of the spinal cord to the brain, specifically to the postcentral gyrus in the right hemisphere.

Importantly, the corpus callosum plays a role in connecting the two hemispheres and is essential for integrating motor and sensory functions between them. The right hemisphere is also associated with abstract reasoning and visual-spatial abilities. Furthermore, the primary somatosensory cortex is involved in higher processing of mechanoreceptive signals and is integral to subjective measurements of the external world and self-movement.

User Shannon Young
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