Sensory Information and P-DTR
The major sensory modalities in humans are mediated by distinct classes of receptor neurons located in specific sense organs. Each class of receptor cell transforms one type of stimulus energy into electrical signals that are encoded as trains of action potentials. The principal receptor cells include photoreceptors (vision), chemoreceptors (smell, taste, and pain), thermal receptors, and mechanoreceptors (touch, hearing, balance, and proprioception). The classic five senses—vision, smell, taste, touch, and hearing—and the sense of balance are mediated by receptors in the eye, nose, mouth, skin, and inner ear, respectively. The other somatosensory modalities—thermal senses, pain, and proprioception—are mediated by receptors distributed throughout the body.
Sensory information is neural activity originating from stimulation of receptor cells in specific parts of the body. These senses include the classic five senses plus a variety of modalities not recognized by the ancients but essential to bodily function: the somatic sensations of proprioception (posture and movement of our own body), pain, itch, and temperature; visceral sensations (both conscious and unconscious) necessary for homeostasis; and the vestibular senses of balance (the position of the body in the gravitational field) and head movement.
The extent to which features of sensory processing have been conserved in the course of human evolution seems nothing short of astonishing. In each of the sensory systems receptors provide the first neural representation of the external world. This information flows centrally to regions of the brain involved in cognition. The sensory pathways have both serial and parallel components, consisting of fiber tracts with thousands or millions of axons interrupted by synaptic relays comprising millions of neurons. Along the way information is transformed from relatively simple forms to the complex forms that are the basis of cognition. Sensory pathways are also recursive. The higher centers in the brain modify and structure the incoming flow of sensory signals by feeding information back to earlier stages of processing; thus, percepts are shaped by internal as well as environmental factors.
In each sensory modality a specific type of stimulus energy is transformed into electrical signals by specialized receptors. The sensory information is transmitted to the central nervous system by trains of action potentials that represent particular aspects of the stimulus.
P-DTR is a unique neurological therapy based on neurology, biomechanics, neurophysiology, anatomy and profound research. It works directly with Central Nervous System and has a logical scientific explanation for all of its teachings. Under the guidance of Dr. Jose Palomar, orthopedic surgeon and founder, P-DTR is constantly being researched, and the scope of practical application of its unique material is being expanded on a yearly basis.
Put simply, P-DTR is the practical application of theoretical neurology. The inspiration and source material for this technique is drawn primarily from a profound understanding of neuroanatomy, physiology and orthopedics. All of the information that is delivered as part of our practitioners’ educational journey can be found in any neurology, physiology or orthopedic textbook anywhere in the world. The difference is that P-DTR training will enable our practitioners to understand exactly how to interact with all of the neurological theory in each and every person that they treat. The textbook knowledge becomes immediately applicable to each person being assessed and treated using P-DTR which enables both practitioner and patient to see neurology acting and adapting in real time.
Unique to P-DTR as a therapy, is and understanding of the role that sensory nerve endings (which will be called ‘receptors’ henceforth) play in the function and processes of the central nervous system. P-DTR uses receptors as its entry point to understand, assess and treat all kinds of dysfunction, pain and symptoms that it is possible to experience in the human form.
To illustrate the scope within which P-DTR is capable of operating, we will borrow a well-known analogy from the computer. Computers contain hardware, software and firmware. An example of the hardware would be the screen, the keyboard or the speakers. An example of the software would be Microsoft Word, or Windows XP. An example of the firmware would be the program that relays information from the on switch to the hard drive to instruct it to boot up the computer for use.
In the human body we can apply the same analogy. The hardware is the bones, the ligaments, the organs, the nerves and blood vessels and the physical brain itself. The software is the communication within the CNS and its many interconnected functions. The firmware are the primitive reflexes we are born with as children and some of the autonomic unconscious functions that our bodies perform.
P-DTR as a therapy can be used primarily to treat the software and firmware components of the above analogy, however it also has an important role to play in treating the causes of some hardware problems such as chronic degenerative conditions, and also post operatively when changes have been made surgically to the structure or hardware of the body.
Excerpt From: Kandel, Eric. “Principles of Neural Science”, 5th Edition