Final exam Flashcards
General senses
Somatic, tactile, thermal, pain, proprioceptive (receptors throughout the body)
Special senses
smell, taste, vision, hearing, balance (receptors located in sense organs such as eye, ear, etc)
Which species sense magnetic fields?
Fish, birds, butterflies, and bats to orient and migrate
All contain magnetite in their brains (sensitive to magnetic fields)
Labeled lines hypothesis
Holds that the CNS determines the type of stimulus receiving input from all sensory cells activated by that stimulus
What is transduction?
Changing a physical stimulus (analog signal) into a neural (digital) signal
Pacinian corpuscle
A free nerve ending surrounds by onion-like structure
Stretching the membrane opens stretch-activated ion channels
Vibrations produce graded potentials
Sensitive range
In general, is wider than the response repertoire of a single cell
- Get the entire range by having multiple parallel neurons with different thresholds - then with higher intensity - get more cells recruited
Range fractionation
Coding intensity - in general, the sensitive range is wider than the response repertoire of a single cell
- Solution - multiple parallel neurons with different thresholds. Higher intensity stimulus - more cells will be recruited (range fractionation)
ie low medium high threshold neurons - if all recruited, neural firing rate is very high
Sensory adaptation
detect initial change, but ignore changing events
This limits the amount of (unnecessary) sensory information to process.
Phasic receptor - change the frequency of firing when there is a constant stimulus (fire with change)
Phasic receptors
Change frequency of firing with constant stimulus
Only fire in response to change in the stimulus
Tonic receptors
Continues to fire as long as the stimulus is present
Thalamus role in sensory pathways
Thalamus receives most of the sensory input (except sometimes olfaction)
- Sends it to the cortex (there are specific cortical regions for each sense)
receptive field
the region of the sensory organ to which a particular neuron will respond.
Neurons at each level of the hierarchy have receptive fields. Progressively more complex
What are the two forms of sensory suppression?
- Use of an accessory organ to decrease input (ie. closing eyes)
- Descending pathways - neural inhibition of the receptor’s activity
What two parts of the brain are involved in focusing?
Cingulate cortex
Posterior parietal (association) cortex
Has polymodal cells
damage is called NEGLECT (causes people to have trouble focusing)
usually contralateral neglect *only on one side of the body
Olfactory receptors
6 million total in 2 cm squared area
Each receptor has a long dendrite that extends to the epithelial layer (many fine cilia along the surface)
Fine UNMYELINATED axons - project through the cribiform plate, synapse in the olfactory bulb.
Constantly replaced throughout life
~1000 receptors but only about 400 are functional (others are spares)
GPCR all!
Olfactory Glomerulus
Where the receptor cells synapse with the mitral cell within the OLFACTORY bulb
Perception of olfaction
We only use 400 R’s but can smell 5000 diff odours –PATTERN CODING
Each particular smell activates an array of receptors - get a specific smell when specific array is activated.
What cells do olfactory receptors innervate?
Mitral cells in particular glomeruli in olfactory bulb
Only one type of olfactory receptor neurons inputs to each glomerulus
Which is the only sense which sensory info does not need to go through the thalamus on the way to the cortex?
Olfaction
What is the prepyriform cortex?
Part of the primary olfactory cortex
The cortical brain regions that receive the mitral cell axon projections
COVID affecting smell
Virus binds ACE2 receptors on support (sustentacular cells) - damages epithelium, major loss of cilia
Taste
The perception of the sensory cells in your taste buds
Flavour (what you understand)
Aroma (what you smell) + what you taste = flavour
Where are taste receptors found?
In special cells called taste cells
Taste bud
Onion like structure formed by many taste cells which are formed from many taste cells
Papillae on the tongue
Upper surface of tongue. thousands of taste buds are found in nipple-like structures called papillae
Each papillae has one or more taste buds… Each taste bud has 50-150 cells
Where are taste receptors found?
In our throat and gut and tongue
Taste receptor types
Sweet, salty, sour, bitter, unami
Each receptor responds to a different chemical components of food
What are the 3 different papillae?
- Fungiform (most numerous (one bud/papillae)
- Foliate
- Circumvallate
Each participate in transduction of all tastes
Fungiform Papillae
Most numerous type
One bud/papillae
Found mostly at the tip of the tongue
Foliate papillae
On the side of the tongue