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Rapidly adapting mechanoreceptors found in subcutaneous tissue beneath both hairy and glabrous skin. Pacinian corpuscles contain an afferent nerve fiber surrounded by a capsule with multiple concentric layers. They have large receptive fields and are most sensitive to high-frequency stimuli, such as vibration.

A form of nerve ending discovered by Vater (1741), first described by Pacini (1830), and named after him by Kolliker and Henle (1844). Each c. consists of a centrally situated blind termination of a medullated nerve fiber surrounded by an ovoid mass consisting of several concentrically arranged layers with a central, nearly homogeneous core next to the nerve fiber. The nerve fiber enters the c. at one pole, very soon loses its myelin, and then extends as a naked axis cylinder nearly to the opposite pole, where it enlarges into one or more club-shaped terminal masses. [Filippo Pacini, an Italian anatomist, 1812-1883.]