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- - - This pathway conveys the sensations of touch, vibration and proprioception from the periphery to the cortex. By touch, we mean the sense of the texture of an object and its movement across the skin.

- - - While most aspects of touch, as well as vibration, are conveyed by other (parallel) pathways, this is the only pathway by which proprioceptive information reaches the cortex.

- - - The cerebral cortex elaborates this information to give us a sense of three-dimensional shape (stereognosis) and an awareness of the body's surface and of the body's position in space.

- - - The peripheral axons of this system belong in Groups I and II and have a high conduction velocity (30-120 m/s). Axons of the central pathway are also large, fast conducting ones, so information gets to the cortex quickly. There are few (3) synaptic relays. There is limited convergence and a precise somatotopic organization. The result is high fidelity transmission of information, with good temporal and spatial resolution.