Hearing, Vestibular Perception, Taste and Smell (Kapitel 9)

Question 1

Perhaps you remember the word transduction, from chapter 8. What is Transduction?

Answer 1

The conversion of one form of energy to another.

Question 2

What is the ‘Pinna’?

It can be seen, without any microscope

Answer 2

It is the external part of the ear.

Question 3

The ear can be divided into three primary parts. What are they?

Answer 3

External ear (Pinna), 
Middle ear (ossicles) and 
Inner ear (cochlea, oval- and round window).

Question 4

In the ear, the real name for eardrum is?

Answer 4

The Tympanic Membrane.

Question 5

The ossicles, is?

And where is it located?

Answer 5

Three small bones (incus, malleus, and staples) that transmit sound across the middle ear, from the tympanic membrane to the oval window.

(It is located in the middle ear).

Question 6

.. And what is the ‘Oval window’ then? Where is it located?

Answer 6

It is the opening from the middle ear, to the inner ear.

Question 7

As mentioned a bit earlier, can you name the three small bones, that the ossicles consists of?

Answer 7

Incus, malleus, and staples.

(Bonus info: the staples, actually look a lot like a staple-machine. See p. 258).

Question 8

In the cochlea (the snail), located in the inner ear, a cranial nerve is connected. Which cranial nerve could it be?

Answer 8

The vestibulocochlear nerve (VIII).

Question 9

In the cochlea, the snail looking thing, there is three different ‘canals’. Can you name the three?

Answer 9

1. Scala vestibuli (vestibular canal)
2. Scala media (middle canal)
3. Scala tympani (tympanic canal)

Question 10

In case you might have already forgot.
What can you say about the Scala vestibuli?
What can you say about the Scala media?
What can you say about he Scala tympani?

Answer 10

Scala vestibuli, is also called vestibular canal. It is one of the three principal canals running along the length of the cochlea.

Scala media, is also called middle canal. It is the central of the three spiraling canals inside the cochlea, situated between the scala vestibuli and the scala tympani.

Scala tympani, is also called tympanic canal. And it is one of the three canals running along the cochlea.

Question 11

Christian Houborg købte sig en lækker Jazz CD den 12 december 2016, efter eksamen i psykologisk testning. Hvad var det for en plade han købte?

Answer 11

Jakob Bro - Streams.

Question 12

What is ‘organ of Corti’ ?

Answer 12

A structure in the inner ear that lies on the basilar membrane of the cochlea and contains the hair cells and terminations of the auditory nerve.

Question 13

It is said of the basilar membrane, that it is:” A membrane in the cochlea that contains the principal structures involved in auditory transduction”. What does it mean, that it is involved in auditory transduction?

Answer 13

Given that the basilar membrane vibrates in response to sound, it is part of transforming sound into electrical signals. (Though is is the hair cells that transduce movements of the basilar membrane into electrical signals).

Question 14

The tectorial membrane is located?

Answer 14

Atop the organ of corti, in the cochlea duct.

p. 259 - 260

Question 15

Can you name the two types of hair (receptor) cells in the cochlea?

Answer 15

Inner hair cell (IHC)
And
Outer hair cell (OHC)

Question 16

(Quick tip. Lots of drawings on p. 260 - 261)

Answer 16

Fedt.

Question 17

Stereocilium is a relatively stiff hair that protrudes from a hair cell in the vestibular system. But what happens during a so called ‘stereocilia displacement’ ?

Answer 17

Vary small displacements of hair bundles cause rapid changes in ionic channels of the stereocilia. Sounds that cause the stereocilia to sway, even only very slightly increase tension on the elastic tip, and pop open the ion channels to which they are attached*. The channels then snap shut again in a fraction of a millisecond as the hair cell sways back.

(*The opening channels cause an inrush of K+ and Ca2+, potassium and calcium).

Question 18

What do you call the threadlike fiber that connects the tips of stereocilia?

Answer 18

A tip link. (p. 261).

Question 19

The Cochlea itself, can produce a sound in response to an environmental noise. What is that sound termed?

Answer 19

Otoacoustic emission.

Question 20

From X you can (figuratively) see how each auditory neuron responds to a very precise frequency at its threshold. What is X?

Answer 20

A tuning curve (p. 262).

Question 21

Where does the vestibulocochlear nerve run?

Can you remember what cranial nerve number it has?

Answer 21

Cranial nerve VIII, which runs from the cochlea to the brainstem auditory nuclei.

Question 22

With question 21 in mind. What is ‘superior olivary nuclei’?

Answer 22

It is brainstem nuclei that receive auditory input from both right and left cochlear nuclei and provide the first binaural analysis of auditory information. (p. 263)

Question 23

What can you say about the ‘inferior colliculi’? (Where is it located, and what information does it receive?)

Answer 23

It is paired gray matter structures of the dorsal midbrain that receives auditory information.

Question 24

The inferior colliculi send information to the?

Answer 24

Medial geniculate nuclei in the thalamus. (The thalamus then sends output to the auditory cortex).

Question 25

What is meant by ‘tonotopic organization’?

Answer 25

It is a major organizational feature in auditory systems in which neurons are arranged as an orderly map of stimulus frequency, with cells responsive to high frequencies located at a distance from those responsive to low frequencies. (p. 263)

Question 26

What is meant by ‘place coding’, as oppose to ‘temporal coding’?

Answer 26

Whereas place coding is the encoding of sound frequency as a function of the location on the basilar membrane that is most stimulated by that sound, temporal coding has to do with the number of action potentials per second produced by an auditory nerve. (p. 265)

Question 27

In sound perception, the duplex theory says that we?

Answer 27

.. Localize sound by combining information about intensity differences and latency differences between the two ears.

Question 28

The duplex theory combine intensity differences and latency differences to localize sound. What is Intensity- and Latency differences?

Answer 28

Intensity differences: The perceived differences in loudness between the two ears.

Latency differences: The perceived differences in the time of arrival of a sound (between the two ears).

Question 29

The process known as ‘spectral filtering’ is?

Answer 29

The way we alterrate the amplitude of some, but not all, frequencies in a sound.

Question 30

What does the disorder ‘Amusia’ entails?

Answer 30

An inability to discern tunes accurately.

Question 31

With diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scientists.. ?

Answer 31

Use a modified form of MRI in which the diffusion of water in a confined space, is exploited to produce images of axonal fiber tracts.

Question 32

Sensorineural deafness is?

Answer 32

A hearing impairment that originates from cochlear or auditory nerve lesions.

Question 33

Where is the semicircular canal, and what “does it do”?

Answer 33

It is one of the three fluidfilled tubes in the inner ear that are part of the vestibular system. Each of the tubes, which are at right angles to each other, detects angular acceleration.

Question 34

It is hereby recommended to take a look at page 274, if you would like to know about the Vestibular System.. (There are many different terms.)

Answer 34

yes..

Question 35

What can you say of these three parts, which all originate in the vestibular system?

1. utricle
2. saccule
3. ampulla

(For practice, you could try to draw them? I don’t know)

Answer 35

Utricle: A small, fluid filled sac in the vestibular system above the saccule that responds to static positions of the head.

(kind of same for:)

Ampulla: An enlarged region of each semicircular canal that contains the receptor cells (hair cells) of the vestibular system.

Question 36

The otolith is a.. ?

Answer 36

.. small crystal on the gelatinous membrane in the vestibular system. It has something to do with movement of the head and linear acceleration.

Question 37

På hvilken dansk festival, spiller bl.a. Thomas Helmig og Liss?

Answer 37

Northside Festival. (så ved ud det)

Question 38

A specific reflex, helps us maintain a gaze on a visual object despite movements of the head. What is this reflex called?

(hint: VOR)

Answer 38

Vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR)

p. 275

Question 39

A taste bud is?

Answer 39

A cluster of 50 - 150 cells that detects tastes. Tastes are found in papillae.

Question 40

There are three types of papillae, all residing at the tongue. Can you name them, and where they are?

Answer 40

1. Circumvallate papillae (in the back)
2. Foliate papillae (along the sides)
3. Fungiform papillae (in the front)

Question 41

What has ‘sensory conflict theory’ to do with motion sickness and food?

Answer 41

It is a theory of motion sickness sugesting that discrepancies between vestibular information and visual information simulate food poisoning and therefore trigger nausea.

Question 42

What are taste pores?

Answer 42

It is the small aperture through which tastant* molecules are able to access the sensory receptors of the taste bud.

(*a substance that can be tasted).

Question 43

T1R and T2R, are both taste receptors. But what kind?

Answer 43

T1R: is a family of taste receptor proteins that, when particular members heterodimerize, form taste receptors for sweet flavors and umami flavors, whereas T2R is a family of bitter taste receptors.

Question 44

What is meant by the ‘gustatory system’?

hint: it is quite, simple

Answer 44

The taste system.

as depicted at p. 280

Question 45

Where does the taste “go” after is meets the tastebuds?

Hint: first it goes through three nerves, which leads to..

Answer 45

From the tongue: 
Vagus nerve (x) + Glossopharyngel nerve (IX) + Facial nerve (VII) and all three to the -> Brainstem -> to the Thalamus -> Gustatory cortex: Anterior insula / frontal operculum. (p. 280).

Question 46

What is meant by ‘labeling lines’ when it comes to taste?

Answer 46

It is the concept that each nerve input to the brain reports only a particular type of information.

Question 47

What is meant by ‘Anosmia’?

Answer 47

The inability to smell.

Question 48

‘Olfactory Epithelium’. What and where is it?

Answer 48

It is a sheet of cells, including olfactory receptors, that lines the dorsal portion of the nasal cavities and adjacent regions, including the septum that separates the left and right nasal cavities.

Question 49

A ‘dendritic knob’ is a ..

Answer 49

Portion of olfactory receptor cells present in the olfactory epithelium.

Question 50

Anatomy and main pathways of the human olfactory system is depicted on p?

Answer 50

282.

Question 51

What is described as:” An anterior projection of the brain that terminates in the upper nasal passages and, through small openings in the skull, provides receptors for smell”

Answer 51

The olfactory bulb.

Question 52

The olfactory bulb is organized into many roughly spherical neural circuits called?

Answer 52

Glomeruli.

Question 53

A mitral cell is?

Answer 53

A type of cell in the olfactory bulb that conducts smell-information from the glomeruli to the rest of the brain.