SPECIAL SENSES Flashcards
Sight
- visual system interprets what we see
- necessary to recognising shapes, colours, letters, words and numbers
- important in reading body language and nonverbal cues during social interactions
- guides our movements
- sight or vision is the capability of the eyes to focus and detect images of visible light and generate electivas nerve impulses for varying colours, hues and brightness
- visual perception is how the brain processes these impulses - recognising, differentiating and interpreting visual stimuli through comparison
Smell
- ability to detect scent —> chemical, odour molecules in the air
- olfactory system begins with our nose (hundred of olfactory receptors)
- odour molecules possess a variety of features and thus, excite specific receptors more or less strongly
- chemical nature of odorant important, may be chemotopic map in brain
Taste
- taste and smell are very closely linked
- taste or gestation refers to capability to detect the taste of substances (food etc)
- sense of taste often confused with sense of flavour —> combination of taste and smell perception
- humans receive taste organs through sensory organs called taste buds concentrated on the upper surface of the tongue
- 5 basic tastes: sweet, bitter, sour, salty, savoury (umami)
hearing
- use our auditory system to identify quality, direction of sound
- hearing or audition is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations, changes in the pressure of the surrounding medium
- auditory processing relies on how the brain interprets, recognises and differentiates sound stimuli
Touch
- tactile system refers to the awareness of touch through receptors in skins
- 2 levels: discrimination to tell us where the touch is on our body, tell us whether it is a safe or dangerous touch
- touch or somatosensory is a perception resulting from activation of neural receptors (usually in skin)
- somatosensory system is a diverse sensory system that is spread through all major parts of our body
- system works when activity in a sensory receptor triggered by a specific stimulus, signal eventually passes to an area in the brain uniquely attributed to that area on the body and allows the processes stimulus to be felt at the correct location
Vestibular
- contributes to balance and our sense where our body is in space
- provides the most input about movement in the body
- vestibular system explains the perception of our body in relation to gravity, movement and balance
- measures acceleration, g-force, body movements and head position
Propioception
- perception of sensation of the muscles and joints enabling the brain to know where each part of the body is and how it is moving
- developed by the nervous system as a means to keep track of and control different parts of the body, using feedback from movements of joints and muscles
- sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement
- sense is very important as it lets us know where our body parts are
Opt/i; opt/o; optic/o; ophthalm/o
Eye
Phac/o; phack/o
Lens
Retin/o
Retina
lacrim/o
Lacrimal duct
Blephar/o
Eye lid
Iris/o; ir/o
Iris
Scler/o
Sclera
Conjunctiv
Conjunctiva
Corne/o; kerat/o
Cornea
Cataract
Loss of transparency
Glaucoma
Increase in fluid pressure
-opia
Vision condition
Myopia
Near sighted
Hyperopia
Far sighted
Blindness
Ability to see
Legal blindness
Best corrected vision reduced to 20/200
Snellen chart
- “E chart”
- visual accumulation (what can we see at 20 feet)
LASIK
Laser Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis
Acoustic/o; acoust/o; Audi/o; audit/o; ot/o
Ears
Pinn/i
Outside of ear
Myring/o; tympan/o
Middle ear (tympanic membrane - ear drum)
Labyrinth/o
Inner ear (cochlea)
-cusis
Hearing
Air conduction
Sound travelling through pineal ear / ear canal until it hits ear drums
Bone conduction
Ear drum vibrates causing auditory to move
Deafness
Hearing loss
Tinnitus
Ringing in ears
Equilibrium
Sense of balance
Vertigo
Illusion of movement —> dizziness or lightheaded
Gestation; -geusia
Sense of taste
Olfactory; -osmia
Sense of smell
Tactile
Sense of touch
Rinne test
- test air and bone (hearing)
Weber test
Test bone (hearing)
Ophthalmologist
- M.D.
- diagnose
- can perform surgery
Optician
- can give prescriptions for contacts and glasses
Optometrist
- examine, diagnose and treat diseases
