According to this classification, sensory receptors may be exteroceptors, proprioceptors or interoceptors:
(i) Exteroceptors provide information about the external environment, like touch, pressure, temperature, light, sound, taste, smell etc. Sometimes receptors sensing light, sound and smell, which provide information about the distant environment, have been called telereceptors. Exteroceptors are further subdivided into general exteroceptors that are present in the skin (cutaneous or the tactile receptors), and the special exteroceptors present in the head, represented by the receptors for vision, hearing, taste and smell;
(ii) Proprioceptors provide information about the position and posture of our body in space. They sense stimuli from the muscles, tendons and the joints as well from the vestibular apparatus. Proprioceptors are sometimes further subdivided into general proprioceptors present in the locomotor system (muscle spindles, Golgi tendon organ and Pacinian corpuscle of the joints; and the special proprioceptors present in the head (receptors of the vestibular apparatus);
(iii) Interoceptors or visceroceptors provide information about the events in the viscera, e.g., receptors sensing blood pressure, plasma osmolarity, blood glucose concentration or the degree of stretching of the urinary bladder.