Sensory Systems Flashcards
What is defined as the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that the healthy human eye can see?
Visible Spectrum
What is defined as the bending of light as it passes through something?
Refraction
What is defined as a particle of light energy?
Photon
What is defined as a receptor cell responding to physical energy by changing its neural activity?
Transduction
What is defined as changing focal distance from far to near? (through increasing curvature of lens to bend more light)
Accommodation
What is defined as the wavelength of light associated with the perception of _____?
Color
What is defined as the number of photons present, which is associated with our perception of _____?
Brightness
Are cones or rods abundant in the fovea?
Cones
Are cones or rods abundant in the peripheral retina?
Rods
Are cones or rods high sensitivity?
Rods
Are cones or rods low sensitivity?
Cones
Are cones or rods high acuity?
Cones
Are cones or rods low acuity?
Rods
What part of the eye is the outer covering of the eye and is the first place light is refracted as it enters the eye?
Cornea
What part of the eye is the hole in the center of the iris and controls light entry?
Pupil
What part of the eye is the pigmented circular pair of muscles that control the size of the pupil?
Iris
What part of the eye is the transparent tissue that changes curvature to change focal distance?
Lens
What part of the eye is the neural tissue in the back of the eye and contains photoreceptor cells and other neurons?
Retina
What part of the eye contains axons of retinal ganglion cells and leave back of the eye through optic disk to take visual information to the brain?
Optic Nerve
What are the receptor cells for light?
Photoreceptors
What are the cells whose axons give rise to the optic nerve?
Retinal Ganglion Cells
What are the receptors in rods and cones that respond to light (absorbed and activated by a photon)?
Photopigments
Are photopigment receptors ionotropic or metabotropic?
Metabotropic
Does a photoreceptor cell become depolarized or hyperpolarized after a photopigment absorbs a photon?
Hyperpolarized
Due to a photoreceptor cell actively inhibiting the bipolar cell, does the photopigment absorbing a photon lead to the depolarization or hyper-polarization of the bipolar cell?
Depolarization
Does a photopigment absorbing a photon lead to the subsequent depolarization or hyperpolarization of the retinal ganglion cell, and result in action potentials going towards the brain?
Depolarization
What part of the visual pathway is described as part of midbrain; and reflexive orienting to visual stimulus?
Superior Colliculus
What part of the visual pathway is described as axons from 1 eye?
Optic Nerve
What part of the visual pathway is described as the first part of the cortex to get visual information and where is it found?
Primary Visual Cortex found in the Occipital Lobe
What part of the visual pathway is described as sending information to the primary visual cortex?
Lateral Genicualte Nucleus (LGN) of thalamus
What part of the visual pathway is described as some axons from each eye cross to the opposite side?
Optic Chiasm
What part of the visual pathway is described as just beyond the optic chiasm; some axons from each eye?
Optic Tract
How many types of cones are there?
Three
What is the primary difference between the types of cones?
The type of opsin they have
What determines which type of cones respond?
The wavelength of the light
Patterns of activity across the cone types are important for what type of vision?
Color Vision
How does the brain know how bright a light is?
The rate of action potentials in the optic nerve/tract
What is described by the idea that brighter light leads to more action potentials per second than dim light?
Rate Law
How do sensory organs code for the senses?
which type of cells/receptors are actively firing
What are the receptor cells in the auditory system called, and where are they found?
Hair cells that are found in the cochlea
What are the receptor cells in the olfactory system called, and where are they found?
Olfactory sensory neurons and the olfactory epithelium
Which sensory system doesn’t go through the thalamus on way to the cortex?
Olfaction (smell)
What describes what part of the somatosensory cortex is being activated and how much of that cortex processes information from each part of the body?
Homunculus
Where does transduction occur?
Sensory Organ
Where are reflexive responses to stimuli organized?
Brainstem and Spinal Cord
What serves as a relay and filter for sensory information on the way to the cortex?
Thalamus
Where does conscious recognition of a stimulus occur?
Cortex
