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The ridged band is a band of highly innervated and vascularized tissue that is located just inside the tip of the foreskin of the human male near the mucocutaneous boundary. The ridged band was described by John R. Taylor, M.B.,Ch.B.,MRCPEd, FRCPC, a Canadian pathologist, and others in an article that was published in 1996 in the British Journal of Urology.
The ridged band separates the outer skin of the penis from the inner mucosa. The ridged band contains nerve endings arranged at the crest of rete ridges. The nerve endings resemble Meissner corpuscles or Krause end-bulbs.
The nerve endings in the ridged band are stimulated by deformation of their capsules. Deformation of the capsules may occur by pressure, by stretching of the foreskin, or by the rolling of the foreskin during sexual activity.
The nerves of the ridged band are believed to provide sensory input to the autonomic nervous system, which regulates sexual response.
The ridged band is invariably excised if a male is circumcised.
Reference
Taylor JR, Lockwood AP, Taylor AJ. The prepuce: specialized mucosa of the penis and its loss to circumcision. Br J Urol 1996;77:291-295. URL: http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/cold-taylor/
Cold CJ, Taylor JR. The prepuce. BJU Int 1999;83 Suppl. 1:34-44. URL: http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/cold-taylor/