Chapter 16: Sensory, Motor and Integrative Systems Flashcards
What is sensation?
Conscious or subconscious awareness of changes in the internal or external environment.
What is perception?
Conscious interpretation of sensations.
Sensory modality.
Each type of sensation.
A given sensory neuron carries information for how many sensory modalities?
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General senses.
Somatic senses and visceral senses.
Special senses.
Smell, taste, vision, hearing, equilibrium.
Somatic senses.
Tactile, thermal, pain, proprioception.
Visceral senses.
Pressure, stretch, chemicals, nausea, hunger, temperature of internal organs.
Does a sensory receptor respond to stimuli of other sensory modalities?
Weakly or not at all.
Where are conscious sensations or perceptions integrated?
Cerebral cortex.
Free nerve endings of first-order sensory neurons.
Bare dendrites, not encapsulated, lack any structural specializations. Attached to small diameter unmyelinated C-fibres.
What sensations are sensed by free nerve endings?
Pain, temperature, tickle, itch, touch.
Encapsulated nerve endings of first-order sensory neurons.
Dendrites are enclosed in a connective tissue capsule, distinctive microscopic structure, different types of capsules enhance the sensitivity or specificity of the receptor. Attached to large diameter myelinated A-fibres.
What sensations are sensed by encapsulated nerve endings?
Pressure, vibration, touch.
Separate cells that synapse with first-order sensory neurons.
Hair cells for hearing and equilibrium. Gustatory receptors on tastebuds. Photoreceptors in retina. Receptor potential triggers release of NT –> PSP in sensory neuron –> triggers nerve impulses if threshold is reached.
Exteroceptors.
At or near the external surface of the body. Sensitive to stimuli originating outside the body. Provide information about external environment.
What sensations are sensed by exteroceptors?
Hearing, vision, smell, taste, touch, pressure, vibration, temperature, pain.
Interoceptors.
Visceroceptors in blood vessels, visceral organs, muscles and nervous system. Provide information about internal environment. Not consciously perceived. Activation by strong stimuli may be felt as pain or pressure.
Proprioceptors.
In muscles, tendons, joints and inner ear. Provide information about body position, muscle length, muscle tension, and position and movement of joints.
Mechanoreceptors.
Detect stretching and bending of cells, as well as touch, pressure, vibration, proprioception, hearing, equilibrium.
Chemoreceptors.
Detect chemicals in mouth, nose and body fluids.
Osmoreceptors.
Detect osmotic pressure of body fluids.
Describe adaptation in sensory receptors.
Receptor potential decreases in amplitude during a maintained constant stimulus which causes the frequency of the nerve impulse to decrease. This causes the perception of a sensation to fade or disappear even though the stimulus persists.
Rapidly adapting receptors.
Adapt very quickly as they are specialized for signalling changes in a stimulus.
Slowly adapting receptors.
Adapt slowly and continue to trigger nerve impulses as long as the stimulus persists.
What sensations are sensed by rapidly adapting receptors?
Vibration, touch, smell.
What sensations are sensed by slowly adapting receptors?
Pain, body position, chemical composition of blood.
Somatic sensations arise from stimulation of sensory receptors in what locations?
Skin, subcutaneous layer, skeletal muscles, tendons, joints, mucous membranes of the mouth, vagina and anus.
Where is there a high density of somatic sensory receptors?
Tip of tongue, lips, and fingertips.
Tactile sensations.
Touch, pressure, vibration, itch, tickle.
Touch.
Stimulation of tactile receptors in the skin or subcutaneous layer.
Which receptors sense touch?
Corpuscles of touch, hair root plexuses, type I cutaneous mechanoreceptors, type II cutaneous mechanoreceptors.
Corpuscles of touch.
Meissner corpuscles. Rapidly adapting.
Where are corpuscles of touch located?
In dermal papillae of hairless skin: fingertips, hands, eyelids, top of tongue, lips, nipples, soles, clitoris, tip of penis.
Hair root plexuses.
Rapidly adapting. Free nerve endings are wrapped around hair follicles. Detect movements on skin surface that disturb hairs. Located in hairy skin.
Type I cutaneous mechanoreceptor.
Tactile Merkel disc. Slowly adapting. Flattened free nerve endings make contact with tactile epithelial cells of stratum basale. Located in fingertips, hands, lips, external genitalia.
Type II cutaneous mechanoreceptor.
Ruffini corpuscle. Slowly adapting. Elongated encapsulated nerve endings. Located in dermis and subcutaneous layer.
What are type II cutaneous mechanoreceptors sensitive to?
Skin stretching.
Pressure.
Sustained sensation that is felt over a large area. Occurs with deep deformation of the skin and subcutaneous layer.
Which receptors sense pressure?
Type I and II mechanoreceptors.
Vibration.
Rapidly repetitive sensory signals from tactile receptors.
Which receptors sense vibration?
Lamellated corpuscles and corpuscles of touch.
Lamellated corpuscles.
Pacinian corpuscles. Rapidly adapting. Located in dermis and subcutaneous layer.
What are lamellated corpuscles sensitive to?
High frequency vibrations.
What are corpuscles of touch sensitive to?
Low frequency vibrations.
Itch.
Stimulation of free nerve endings by certain chemicals or antigens.
Why does scratching alleviate itching?
Activates a pathway that blocks transmission of the itch signal through the spinal cord.
Tickle.
Stimulates free nerve endings.
Which receptors detect thermal sensations?
Thermoreceptors, which are free nerve endings that have receptive fields about 1mm in diameter on the skin surface. They continue to generate impulses at a lower frequency throughout a prolonged stimulus.
Which temperatures stimulate pain receptors?
Under 10 C. Over 45 C.
Cold receptors.
Rapidly adapting. Located in stratum basale of epidermis. Attaches to medium diameter myelinated A-fibres. A few connect to small diameter unmyelinated C-fibres. Detect temperatures 10-35 C.
Warm receptors.
Rapidly adapting. Located in dermis. Attached to small diameter unmyelinated C-fibres. Less abundant than cold receptors. Detect temperatures 30-45 C.
Which receptors detect pain sensations?
Nociceptors, which are free nerve endings found in every tissue of the body except the brain. Stimulated by intense thermal, mechanical or chemical stimuli.
Why would nociceptors detect chemicals?
Tissue irritation and injury can release chemicals and K+.
Why would pain persist after the stimuli is removed?
Pain-mediating chemicals linger, and nociceptors exhibit very little adaptation.
Fast pain.
Occurs within 0.1 seconds after the stimulus. Detected by nociceptors attached to medium diameter myelinated A-fibres. Not felt in deeper tissues of the body. Examples: acute, sharp, pricking.
Slow pain.
Occurs within a second or more after the stimulus, and gradually increases in intensity. Detected by nociceptors attached to small diameter unmyelinated C-fibres. Can occur in the skin and in deeper tissues. Examples: burning, chronic, aching, throbbing.
Superficial somatic pain.
Arises from stimulation of receptors in the skin.
Deep somatic pain.
Arises from stimulation of receptors in skeletal muscles, joints, tendons, fascia.
Visceral pain.
Arises from stimulation of nociceptors in visceral organs.
Referred pain.
Pain is felt in a surface area far from the stimulated organ. The visceral organ and area of pain are served by the same segment of the spinal cord.
Kinesthesia.
Perception of body movements.
Which receptors sense proprioceptive sensations?
Proprioceptors, muscle spindles, tendon organs, joint kinesthetic receptors.
Proprioceptors.
Slowly adapting. The brain continually receives impulses related to proprioception. Allow for weight discrimination of objects and tasks.
Muscle spindles.
Slowly adapting. Nerve endings wrap around 3-10 intrafusal fibres. Detect changes in skeletal muscle length. Involved in stretch reflexes.
Where are there an abundance of muscle spindles?
Areas that produce finely controlled movements.