Senses Flashcards
What are the three receptors we have?
- mechanoreceptors
- chemoreceptors
- electromagnetic receptors
What are mechanoreceptors used to sense?
-touch
-hearing
-balance
What are chemoreceptors used to sense?
-taste
-smell
-pH
What are electromagnetic receptors used to sense?
vision
What are two things that we, as humans, can’t pick up on but organisms can?
-infrared light
-electromagnetic fields
What is the base pathway for all senses?
- stimulus
- transduction (of signal into receptors)
- transmission of action potential
- interpretation of signal by brain
Do mechanoreceptors have many different types of pressure sensors, or just 1?
many different types
What are nociceptors used for?
to detect pain, and it is concentrated in areas most prone to injury
What does more depolarization indicate?
more frequent action potentials
How does hearing work?
- sound waves enter eardrum
- tympanic membrane vibrates ear bones
- oval window gets pressed
- vibrations are transmitted to cochlea
- pressure waves vibrate basilar membrane
-stereocilla pick up on vibration
-K+ channels on sterocilla is pulled open
-this causes graded potentials, and action potentials occur
What ear part helps with horizontal motion?
utricle
What ear part helps with vertical motion?
saccule
What ear part helps with angular motion?
cupula
How do we taste salty food?
Na+ travels directly into sodium channels
How do we taste sour food?
H+ enters directly into proton channels
How do we taste sweet, bitter, and umami food?
chemicals interact with G-coupled protein receptors
How do we smell?
- molecules move to mucus where they get dissolved
- olfactory hair pick up on the molecules
- this sends an action potential to the olfactory bulb
- olfactory bulb sends signal to the brain
What is the function of the cornea and the lens?
focus light
What does the pupil determine?
how much light comes into the eyes
What are the three layers that light goes through?
- ganglion cells
- bipolar cells
- rods and cones
What do rods pick up on?
light and dark
What do cones pick up on?
color and sharp images
Ho does vision work?
- light travels to the back of the eye
- receptors pick up on it and send signal back to the ganglion cells
- nerve signal then passes to the optic nerve, where the optic nerve exits the eye
- signal is transmitted to your brain
What is your blind spot?
when your nerve signal travels with the blood vessels at the back of the eye, and there are no cones or rods
