A new study discovered that the neurons present in human skin can also perform advanced calculations, much like the tasks carried out by the brain.
Scientists previously thought that only the brain could perform certain functions, but researchers from the Umea University in Sweden found that first-order neurons are capable of recording touch stimuli and can communicate to each other and other sensitive parts of the skin.
In addition, first-order neurons in the skin have a primary feature enabling the nerve fibers to form receptive fields and highly-sensitive zones in the skin. Researchers found that this formation allows the neurons to perform calculations of geometric data on their own.
"Our work has shown that two types of first-order tactile neurons that supply the sensitive skin at our fingertips not only signal information about when and how intensely an object is touched, but also information about the touched object's shape," said study co-author Andrew Pruszynski.
The study noted that the neurons' sensitivity to the shape of the stimuli is dependent on sensitivity levels of the different areas on the skin.
A human has about 100 billion brain cells and a neuron fires about once every five milliseconds, or about 200 times per second. The speed of the brain determines the number of useful calculations, or the time the brain spends in making a decision.
A simple decision, such as reading a word, needs 300-700 milliseconds. However, the rate varies, as there are brains that are considered "well-trained," which can make calculations faster than the usual. This explains why some people can answer a question faster than others.
Further details of this study were published in the Sept.3 issue of Nature Neuroscience.
