Nose and throat Flashcards
What is another name for the windpipe?
The trachea.
What is the name for the voice box?
The larynx.
What is the hard palate?
The front part of the roof of the mouth.
What is the soft palate?
The back part of the roof of the mouth.
How is sound produced?
There is a flow of air past the vocal cords that causes vibration, causing sounds.
What are vocal cords comprised of?
Epithelium, mucous connective tissue and muscle.
What does the supralaryngeal do?
Modify harmonics.
How are different sounds produced?
Structures in the vocal tract form a series of valves that change the shape of the tract to produce different sounds. The moveable articulators (lips, tongue and velum) act as valves to close or constrict the tube to produce speech sounds.
What are the functions of the nose?
Breathing, air conditioning (temperature and humidity), protection, airway patency, vocal resonance, olfaction.
What cells is the nasal lining composed of?
Stem cells, goblet cells, ciliated columnar epithelial cells, cilia and a mucus layer.
What is olfaction?
The sense of smell.
Where is olfactory epithelium found?
In the roof of the nose. It contains olfactory receptors.
What happens to odorants that we inhale?
Odorants are inhaled and are dissolved in the mucus that covers the epithelium.
What happens to odorants after they are inhaled?
They bind to olfactory receptors and become excited. Glutamate is released from optic nerve terminals and mitral cells are excited that then send action potentials to the olfactory cortex.
What happens after action potentials are sent to the olfactory cortex after odorants are inhaled?
Specific neurone sets in the cortex respond to specific odors and information is passed to other areas for association and integration.
