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John R. Taylor, The Forgotten Foreskin and Its Ridged Band, The Journal of Sexual Medicine, Volume 4, Issue 5, September 2007, Page 1516, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2007.00588.x
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Extract
Circumcision does not diminish the sensitivity of the glans and penile shaft skin [1]. However, the prepuce is always front and center in the great circumcision debate and direct comparison of the glans with prepuce, not shaft skin, is essential.
The glans is naturally insensitive to fine touch whether the penis is circumcised or not [2], and study of the effect of circumcision on sexual function should therefore focus on the missing prepuce. Biologically, however, both glans and prepuce contribute to the single mucocutaneous junctional zone of the penis, and it is possible that these apparently dissimilar structures in fact share similar functions related more to sexual reflexes than to touch perception.
The ridged band of prepuce [3,4] is tucked just inside the tip of the unretracted prepuce; it is a richly vascular mucosal tissue heavily innervated by movement-sensitive Meissner corpuscles. In addition to touch sensitivity [2], the ridged band is uniquely ridged or corrugated, and not surprisingly, work in progress indicates that retraction and stretching of this accordion-like structure triggers reflex contraction of bulbocavernosus and bulbospongiosus. These “bulb muscles” compress the root or bulb of the penis and among other things, including deep erogenous sensation, are responsible for ejaculation and clearing of residual urine from the posterior urethra following micturition.
