The present study aimed to identify the mechanism of tactile sensation by analyzing the regularity of the firing pattern of Merkel cell–neurite complex (MCNC) under the stimulation of different compression depths. The fingertips were exposed to the contact pressure of a spherical object to sense external stimuli in this study. The distribution structure of slowly adapting type I (SAI) mechanoreceptors was considered for analyzing the neural coding of tactile stimuli, especially the firing pattern of SAI neural network for perceiving the external stimulation. The numerical simulation results showed that (1) when the skin was pressed by the same sphere and the depth of the pressing finger skin and position of the force application point remained unchanged, the firing rate of the neuron depended on the synergistic effect of the number of receptors connected with the neuron and the distance between the neuron and the force application point. (2) When the fingertip was pressed by the same sphere at a constant depth and the different contact position, the overall firing rate of the MCNC neural network increased with the number of SAI mechanoreceptors in the area where the force application point was located.

中文翻译：

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触觉感应过程中默克尔细胞神经突复合物转导机制的神经动力学分析。

本研究旨在通过分析不同压缩深度刺激下的默克尔细胞-神经突复合物（MCNC）发射模式的规律性，来确定触感的机制。在这项研究中，指尖暴露于球形物体的接触压力下，以感知外部刺激。为了分析触觉刺激的神经编码，特别是缓慢适应的I型（SAI）机械感受器的分布结构，特别是用于感知外部刺激的SAI神经网络的发射模式。数值模拟结果表明：（1）当皮肤被同一球体按压时，手指按压皮肤的深度和施力点的位置保持不变；神经元的发射速度取决于与神经元相连的受体数量以及神经元与施力点之间的距离的协同作用。（2）当用相同的球体以恒定的深度和不同的接触位置按压指尖时，随着力施加点所在区域中SAI机械感受器的数量增加，MCNC神经网络的总体发射速率会增加。