| irritability | 1. The state or quality of being irritable; quick excitability; petulance; fretfulness; as, irritability of temper. 2. <physiology> A natural susceptibility, characteristic of all living organisms, tissues, and cells, to the influence of certain stimuli, response being manifested in a variety of ways, as that quality in plants by which they exhibit motion under suitable stimulation; especially, the property which living muscle processes, of responding either to a direct stimulus of its substance, or to the stimulating influence of its nerve fibres, the response being indicated by a change of form, or contraction; contractility. 3. <medicine> A condition of morbid excitability of an organ or part of the body; undue susceptibility to the influence of stimuli. See Irritation. Origin: L. Irritabilitas: cf. F. Irritabilite. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
|---|---|
| Merkel's tactile cell | A specialised tactile sensory nerve ending in the epidermis, characterised by a terminal cuplike expansion of an intraepidermal axon in contact with the base of a single modified keratinocyte. Synonym: meniscus tactus, Merkel's corpuscle, Merkel's tactile cell, Merkel's tactile disk, tactile disk. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Merkel's tactile disk | A specialised tactile sensory nerve ending in the epidermis, characterised by a terminal cuplike expansion of an intraepidermal axon in contact with the base of a single modified keratinocyte. Synonym: meniscus tactus, Merkel's corpuscle, Merkel's tactile cell, Merkel's tactile disk, tactile disk. (05 Mar 2000) |
| tactile | Of or pertaining to the organs, or the sense, of touch; perceiving, or perceptible, by the touch; capable of being touched; as, tactile corpuscles; tactile sensations. "Tactile sweets." . "Tactile qualities." . <physiology> Tactile sense, the sense of touch, or pressure sense. See Touch. "The delicacy of the tactile sense varies on different parts of the skin; it is geatest on the forehead, temples and back of the forearm." (H. N. Martin) Origin: L. Tactilis, fr. Tangere, tactum, to touch: cf. F. Tactile. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| tactile agnosia | The inability to recognise objects by touch, in the presence of intact cutaneous and proprioceptive hand sensation; caused by lesion in the contralateral parietal lobe. Synonym: astereognosis, stereoagnosis, stereoanesthesia. (05 Mar 2000) |
| tactile anaesthesia | Loss or impairment of the sense of touch. (05 Mar 2000) |
| tactile cell | One of the epithelioid cell's of a corpusculum tactus. Synonym: touch cell. (05 Mar 2000) |
| tactile corpuscle | One of numerous oval bodies found in the papillae of the skin, especially those of the fingers and toes; they consist of a connective tissue capsule in which the axon fibrils terminate around and between a pile of wedge-shaped epithelioid cells. Synonym: corpusculum tactus, Meissner's corpuscle, oval corpuscle, touch corpuscle. (05 Mar 2000) |
| tactile disk | A specialised tactile sensory nerve ending in the epidermis, characterised by a terminal cuplike expansion of an intraepidermal axon in contact with the base of a single modified keratinocyte. Synonym: meniscus tactus, Merkel's corpuscle, Merkel's tactile cell, Merkel's tactile disk, tactile disk. (05 Mar 2000) |
| tactile elevations | Small areas in the skin of the palms and soles especially rich in sensory nerve endings. Synonym: toruli tactiles. (05 Mar 2000) |
| tactile fremitus | Vibration felt with the hand on the chest during vocal fremitus. (05 Mar 2000) |
| tactile hair | The vibrissae or whiskers of animals such as rats and cats which have especially well developed touch endings in the follicular wall. (05 Mar 2000) |
| tactile hallucination | False perception of movement or sensation, as from an amputated limb, or crawling sensation on the skin. (05 Mar 2000) |
| tactile hyperesthesia | Extreme sensitiveness to touch. Synonym: oxyaphia, tactile hyperesthesia. Origin: hyper-+ G. Haphe, touch (05 Mar 2000) |
| tactile image | An image of an object as perceived by the sense of touch. (05 Mar 2000) |