Chapter 36 Flashcards
A sensory neuron with specialized membranes in which receptor proteins are embedded.
sensory receptor cell
A group of sensory receptors that converts particular physical and chemical stimuli into nerve impulses that are processed by a nervous system and sent to a brain.
sensory organ
The conversion of physical or chemical stimuli into nerve impulses.
sensory transduction
A receptor that responds to molecules that bind to specific protein receptors on the cell membrane of the sensory receptor
chemoreceptor
A sensory receptor that responds to physical deformations of its membrane produced by touch, stretch, pressure, motion, or sound.
mechanoreceptor
A receptor that responds to electrical, magnetic, or light stimuli.
electromagnetic receptor
A molecule whose chemical properties are altered when it absorbs light; also, photoreceptors are the sensory receptors in the eye.
photoreceptor
A sensory receptor found in some fish that enables them to detect weak electrical signals emitted by other organisms.
electroreceptor
A sensory receptor in the skin and in specialized regions of the central nervous system that responds to heat and cold.
thermoreceptor
A type of nerve cell with dendrites in the skin and connective tissues of the body that responds to excessive mechanical, thermal, or chemical stimuli by withdrawal from the stimulus and by the sensation of pain.
nociceptor
The number of action potentials fired over a given period of time.
firing rate
The converging of multiple receptors onto a neighboring neuron, increasing its firing rate proportionally to the number of signals received.
spatial summation
The frequency of synaptic stimuli; the integration of sensory stimuli that are received repeatedly over time by the same sensory cell.
temporal summation
In an evolutionary context, the fit between an organism and its environment that results from evolution by natural selection. In sensory reception, the process in which sensory receptors reduce their firing rate when a stimulus continues over a period of time.
adaptation
Inhibition of a process in cells adjacent to the cell receiving a signal inducing that process, enhancing the strength of a signal locally but diminishing it peripherally.
lateral inhibition
The sense of smell.
olfaction
The sense of taste.
gustation
One of the sensory organs for taste
taste bud
A specialized mechanoreceptor that senses movement and vibration.
hair cell
Nonmotile cell-surface projections on hair cells whose movement causes a depolarization of the cell’s membrane.
stereocilia
In fish and sharks, a sensory organ along both sides of the body that uses hair cells to detect movement of the surrounding water.
Lateral line system
A type of gravity-sensing organ found in most invertebrates.
statocyst
In plants, a large starch-filled organelle in the root cap that senses gravity; in animals, a dense particle that moves freely within a statocyst, enabling it to sense gravity.
statolith
A system in the mammalian inner ear made up of two statocyst chambers and three semicircular canals.
vestibular system
One of three connected fluid-filled tubes in the mammalian inner ear that contains hair cells that sense angular motions of the head in three perpendicular planes.
semicircular canal