Slides 3 Flashcards
Where does integration of sensory information typically occur?
Mostly in the pre-frontal cortex
What are the 3 things the brain needs to do in order to produce behaviour?
- Receive info about the world
- Integrate info to create a sensory reality
- Produce commands to control the movement of muscles
What are the brain’s 3 primary functions?
- Create a sensory reality
- Integrate information
- Produce behaviour
How are white matter tracts detected in the brain?
Tractography
Sensory receptors:
specialized cells that transduce (convert) sensory energy (like light) into neural activity
Energy for vision
Light –> chemical
Energy for audition
air pressure –> mechanical
Energy for somatosensation
Mechanical energy and sometimes chemical energy
Energy for taste and olfaction
Chemical molecules
Is our perception an exact replication of the real world?
Not really, it is a subjective construction of reality that is manufactured by the brain
How does the brain distinguish between the different senses?
They are processed in different parts of the brain
Learn to distinguish the senses through experience
Which is our primary sense?
Vision
3 layers of the eye
Cornea: clear outer covering
Lens: focuses light
Retina: where light energy initiates neural activity q
Retina vs Fovea
Retina = light sensitive surface at the back of the eye consisting of neurons and photoreceptor cells Fovea = center of the retina, the receptive field at the senteer of the eye's visual field
what is the function of the bipolar cells?
They connect the rods and cones to the ganglion cells
What cells make up the optic nerve?
The axons of the ganglion cells
Retinohypothalamic tract
Axons of ganglion cells that go to the hypothalamus and contribute to circadian rhythms and pupil size
Characteristics of rods
- More numerous than cones
- Sensitive to dim light
- Used for night vision
- No colour perception
Characteristics of cones
- Responsive to bright light
- Colour and high visual acuity
- Located in the fovea
- Colour vision
2 layers of a photoreceptor
Outer: stacks of membranes that contain visual pigment molecules (rhodopsin)
Inner: organelles and opsin molecules
Geniculostriate visual pathway
Retina –> visual cortex
Main pathway that allows you to form images
Tectopulvinar visual pathway
retina –> superior colliculus
Allows you to detect motions
Visually guided movements
Retinohypothalamic visual pathway
Synapse at the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus
Regulates circadian rhythm and pupillary reflex
Is an image formed at V1?
No, thats where all of the information (colour, motion, depth, form) is integrated
Images are put together in V2, V3, and V4
Dorsal Visual Stream
Occipital –> parietal
How: visually guided movements
Ventral Visual stream
Occipital –> temporal
What: visual identification of objects
Pinna:
Funnel-like external structure of the ear designed to catch sound waves and direct them to ear canal
External ear canal:
Amplifies sound waves and directs them to the eardrum
Middle ear:
An air filled chamber with 3 bones:
- Hammer
- Anvil
- Stirrup
The inner ear has what 3 components?
Cochlea
Basilar membrane
Hair cells
Cochlea:
Fluid filled stricture that have the auditory receptor cells
Basilar membrane:
Receptor surface in the cochlea that transduce sound waves into neural activity
- Where the hair cells are embedded
Hair cells
Sensory cells that when stimulated by waves in the cochlear fluid, push up against the tectorial membrane and make action potentials in the auditory nerve
Fast vs slow wave sound frequencies
Fast: max displacement at base of membrane
Slow: max displacement at apex of membrane
Process of sound wave to NT release
- Sound makes waves in the cochlear fluid which moved the basilar membrane
- Hair cells are anchored in the basilar membrane, so they get pushed up against the tectorial membrane
- Displacement of hair cells changes the membrane potential and leads to NT release
Inner vs outer hair cells
Inner: afferent and make up 90% of auditory nerve
Outer: both efferent and afferent
What direction of movement of the hair cells causes a depolarization?
Movement towards the tallest cilia
K+ entry
Causes Ca+ to enter and NT to be released
What direction of movement causes the hair cells to hyperpolarize?
Movement towards the shortest cilia
Causes less NT release
Where do the inner hair cells synapse to?
spiral ganglion axons that make the auditory nerve (cranial nerve 8)
What brain region helps you detect where sounds are coming from?
Superior Olivary complex
What brain region mediates sound guided movements?
Inferior colliculus
Left vs right temporal lobe in sound processing
Left = language processing Right = spatial dynamics and emotion
Humans have which two types of skin?
Hairy and glabrous
Nociception
Perception of pain, temperature and itch
Hapsis
perception of fine touch and pressure
Identify objects through touch
Proprioception
Perception of the location and movement of the body
- sensitive to the stretch of muscles and tendons and movement of joints
What sense to free nerve endings respond to?
Chemical signals for pain
Rapidly adaptive reception
responds briefly at the beginning and at the end of a stimulus
- touch, fluttering sensations and vibration
Slowly adapting receptor
responds as long as a sensory stimulus is on the body
- pain, temperature, skin indentation
Root ganglion neurons
Axons that carry sensory information from the skin to CNS
- May synapse with other neurons in the spinal cord or go straight to the brain
Proprioceptive and haptic neurons
Large, well myelinated axons –> fast
Ipsilateral in spinal cord and cross at brain stem
Nociceptive neurons
Small, not well myelinated axons –> slow
Cross in brain stem
Primary somatosensory cortex (Broadmans area 3-1-2)
Receives projections from the thalamus
Begins the process to constructing perceptions from somatosensory information
Secondary somatosensory cortex
Brodman’s area 5 and 7
Refines the construction of perceptions
Projects to the frontal cortex
Integrating vision with somatosenses
The dorsal stream projects to the secondary somatosensory cortex and then to the frontal lobe
Movement planning in the frontal lobe
Prefrontal: planning movements
Premotor: organizes motor sequences
Primary motor: produces specific movements
Axon projections of one eye
Half stay on the ipsilateral side and go to the contralateral side
Which receptors are furthest away from the lens?
Photoreceptors
What cells are the interneurons of the visual system?
Amacrine and horizontal cells
Which cells does light reach first in the eye?
Ganglion cells
Which eye cells produce action potentials?
Ganglion and amarine cells
What eye cells produce graded potential
Photoreceptors, horizontal cells and bipolar cells
What NT do photoreceptors release?
Glutamate
How are pigments arranged in rods and cones?
Rods: in disks that do not contact the membrane
Cones: comb-like structures that are continuous with the membrane
How many disks are replaced each hour?
3, it requires a lot of energy
What is rhodopsin made of?
A complex of a large opsin protein and a light absorbing retinal
What does the opsin protein look like?
A large protein with 7 hydrophobic trans-membrane helices
What happens to retinal when it absorbs light?
It changes shape = photoisomerization
It goes from 11-cis retinal to all trans retianl
What happens to rhodopsin when retinal changes shape?
The whole protein changes shape
What molecule is crucial for phototransduction?
Metarhodopin II
All-trans retinal is the precursor for what?
11-cis retinal
What nutrient is needed from our diet to make all-trans retinal
Vitamin A
What is the confirmation of retinal at rest>
11-cis retinal
Because all-trans retinal is more straightened out, what happens to the rhodopsin protein when activated by light
The opsin gets pushed open
What is different between photoreceptors that capture different colour wave lengths
the amino acid sequences are slightly different
How do invertebrates’ photoreceptors respond to light?
Depolarization
How to photoreceptors in vertebrates respond to light?
Hyperpolarization
What does photoactivated rhodopsin (meta II) do when stimulated?
It activates the G-protein transducin, initiating the phototransduction cascade
What is the activity of photoreceptors in the dark?
Na+ and Ca++ enter ion channels and cause depolarization and glutamate is released
What happens to the activity of the photoreceptor when stimulated by light?
The sodium channels close due to reduced levels of cGMP
Rod becomes hyperpolarized and reduces glutamate release
Levels of cGMP and sodium channels
High = channel open Low = channel closed
The g-protein transducin has 3 subunits. What happens to the alpha subunit during transduction?
Alpha exchanges GDP for GTP
It break off and activates the membrane bound phosphodiesterase. It hydrolyzes cGMP to GMP –> reducing levels of cGMP
What happens when there is decreased cGMP?
It is less able to bind to Na channels, so they close and the rod hyperpolarizes
What dictates the specific wave length that will stimulate a rod?
The amino acid sequence of the opsin molecule
The amount of of NT released from the rods is related to what?
The amount of light
Is there a blood brain barrier on the nose?
No
Sequence of olfactory cells
Receptors to Glomerulus to Mitral cells (which make up the olfactory projection)
What are the inhibitory cells in olfaction
Periglomerular cells (connest the glomerulus together)
Tufted cells
Granule cells
Odour applied to the soma makes what type of response?
A short rapid response
Odour applies to the dendrites of cilia produce what type of response
A large, long lasting response
|»_space; Due to second messengers
What receptors are involved in smell and where are they located?
Golf receptors
In the cilia
What happens to the Golf receptor when an odour binds?
- Alpha subunit dissociates
2a. Activates adenylyl cyclase and increases cAMP
3a. Opens Na and Ca channels influx
2b. Also a activates phospholipase 3
3b. Converts PIP2 to IP3
4b. Opens Ca channels
What happens when the olfactory cilia become depolarized (influx of Na and Ca)
Ca causes the chloride channels to open, and Cl effluxes, causing further depolarization
What happens when the olfactory cilia become depolarized (influx of Na and Ca)
Ca causes the calcium-activated chloride channels to open, and Cl effluxes, causing further depolarization
What does it mean to say that odour receptors are more general?
More than one odourant type can bind to each receptor
Why do odour receptors need to be constantly replenished?
Because they are constantly being killed off, maybe from all the calcium
Are receptor types evenly spaced in the nose/
No, particular odourant receptors are found in restricted areas of the olfactory epithelium
Where do olfactory receptors project to?
To the olfactory bulb
Which mainly projects to the amygdala
What is the significance of lots of olfactory projections to the amygdala
It makes unconscious emotional assessment of odour
What other sense enhances taste?
Smell