Topic 6 - Organisms respond to factors in the external or internal environment Flashcards
What is the general outline for how bodies respond to change?
Stimulus receptor central nervous system (brain or spinal cord) effector (muscle for nervous response, gland for hormonal response) response
What two types of response can our bodies have?
hormonal and nervous
Define stimulus
Detectable change in the internal or external environment
Define receptors
Any structure able to respond to a change
Define co-ordinator (CNS)
The ‘switchboard’ connecting information from the receptor to the appropriate effector
Define effector
Causes a response (muscle or gland)
Define response
The output/change in behaviour
With heat on the hand as the stimulus, what happens in the rest of the system?
Heat on hand nerves on hand detect heat message sent to CNS message sent to muscles in arm move hand
Organisms react to stimuli in their environment in different ways, what are the main diffrences?
- The whole organism or only part of it could move in response
- The movement could be directional or non-directional
What does an organisms reaction to its environment enable it to do?
to be better adapted to its environment
What are the types of response?
Kinesis, taxes, and trophisms
What is kinesis / kinetic response?
- Whole organisms
- Alteration in the rate of movement
- In response to a change in the intensity of a stimulus
- Non-directional (not determined by the stimulus)
What is taxes / Tactic Response?
- Movement of the entire organism or cell
- In response to and directed by the stimulus
- Phototaxis = light, Chemotaxis = chemical
- Positive taxis (towards + ) or negative taxis (away from - )
What is tropisms / trophic response?
- Movement of part of a plant
- Directed by the stimulus
- Geotropism, phototropism, hydrotropism
- Growth response
Which responses affect the whole organsim?
tactic and kinetic
Which responses affect part of an organism?
tropic
Describe the processes involved in the transport of sugars in plant stems (5 marks)
At the source, sucrose is actively transported into the phloem via the companion cells. This lowers the water potential in the phloem and water enters by osmosis. This produces a high hydrostatic pressure, causing a mass flow towards roots. At roots, sugars are removed and used in respiration.
What Plant Responses are there?
- Phototropism: response to light
- Hydrotropism: response to water
- Geotropism: response to gravity
Where is IAA produced?
.IAA produced at the apical meristem, at the top of the plant
.Plants do not have a nervous system therefore they use what?
specific growth factors (auxins)
plant growth factors are more descriptive, why?
- Affect growth
- Are made by cells located throughout the plant (not organs)
- Produced in small quantities
- Affect tissues close by and sometimes tissues they released from
What is the main growth factor in plants?
.The hormone indoleacetic acid (IAA) – growth factor causing cell elongation
What is scientific research?
- Observe and try to explain it using prior knowledge
2. Formulate a hypothesis that can be tested experimentally
Darwin’s Evidence for Tropisms: obersvation, hypothesis, and experiment
- Observation: Grasses grown always tilted towards the window
- Hypothesis: Light (stimuli) is detected by the tip of the shoot, leads to tilting response
- Experiment: 5 plants in different conditions, one normal, one with the tip removed, one with the tip covered by an opaque cap, one with the tip covered by a transparent cap, one with base covered by opaque shield, light faced them all in same direction. Only the normal, tip covered by transparent cap and base covered by opaque shield plants bent towards the light. Also the control plant showed smaller cells on the illuminated side and longer ones on the shaded side. This suggested that light affected the tip, causing it to bend towards the light by growing the shaded cells.
Some scientists went on to hypothesis that the response that darwin found in the plants phototropism was a result of:
a. A chemical produced in the tip
b. A electrical signal in the tip
What did boysen-jensen do?
Used two different materials to suggest whether phototropisms used a chemical or electrical signal
They took three plants, with the first they placed a thin barrier of mica on the illuminated side, with the second they placed a thin barrier of mica on the shaded side, and with the third they removed the tip and put a gelatin lock on top then put the tip on top of that. The first plant bent towards the light, he second didn’t, but the third did. This suggested it was chemicals on the shaded side coming from the tip which allowed the growth towards the light.
WHat is Mica?
an electrical conductor that does not allow chemical to diffuse through it
What is gelatin?
conducts chemicals but not electricity
What was Arpad Paal’s experiment?
The tips of two plants were removed then placed back on, but displaced to the side (one each way). It was found that the shoots bend towards the side where no tip is present.
There are two main divisions of the nervous system, what are they?
Central nervous system and peripheral nervous system
What makes up the CNS?
.Brain
.Spinal cord
What makes up the PNS?
.Pairs of nerves from the CNS travelling to limbs and organs – sensory neuron, motor neuron
How are the CNS and PNS similar?
- Both carry electrical message
WHat is the PNS and what does it do?
.Pairs of nerves from the CNS travelling to limbs and organs
.Relays messages from the CNS to the effector
What are the two main divisions of the PNS?
somatic, autonomic
WHat is somatic?
(voluntary) nervous system, conscious and involves the brain
What is autonomic?
(involuntary) nervous system, subconscious – reflex arc
What are reflexes?
Involuntary responses to a stimuli
The importance of reflexes?
.Safety/protection .Immediate (fast) .Innate (not learnt) .Prevent the brain from being overworked by not involving the conscious part .Automatic (unconscious)
Why are reflexes good?
.The brain can focus on complex behaviours
.Escape predators, gain food or mates
what are Reflex Arcs?
The pathway of neurons involved in a reflex action
Key structures of reflex arc
.Stimuli .Sensory neuron .Motor neuron .Effector .Relay/intermediate neuron .Spinal cord .Receptor
Define the key structures of the reflex arc
Stimuli The external or internal environmental change
Sensory neuron The neuron which carries the signal from the receptor to the intermediate neuron
Motor neuron The neuron which carries the signal from the spinal cord to the effector
Effector The muscle or gland which is stimulated to respond
Relay/intermediate neuron Links the message between the sensory and motor neurons
Spinal cord The part of the CNS
Receptor Receives the stimuli
What is a receptor?
.Any structure able to respond to a change
Key points about receptors
- Receive information and pass it to the CNS
- Are specific in what they detect
- Two main components for receiving information
What are the receptors two main components for receiving information?
o Sensory reception gathers information (sense organs)
o Sensory perception is making sense of this information (function of the brain)
What happens to information after it has been gathered by receptors?
.Sensory information must be converted into information that the body understands
.This is done by transducers (converts energy forms)
.Sensory information nerve impulses
.E.g. (a form of energy like heat, light or sound to action or potential)
Examples of receptors
.Pacinian corpuscle (skin)
.Rod and cone cells (eyes)
What does the Pacinian corpuscle respond to?
.Only responds to mechanical pressure
Where is the pacinian corpuscle found?
.Found deep in the skin:
- Soles of feet
- Fingers
- External genitalia
- Ligaments/tendons
As well as a receptor, what does the pacinian corpuscle act as?
a transducer
Describe the pacinian corpuscle
.The sensory neurone leads to a neurone ending
.The neurone ending is surrounded by layers of connective tissue
.This connective tissue contains blood capillaries and viscous gel, and is surrounded by a capsule
Why does the pacinian corpuscle need blood capillaries?
.It needs blood capillaries to supply it with oxygen and glucose so it can respire and produce ATP to survive, and remove CO2
Why does the pacinian corpuscle need a sensory neurone?
.It needs a sensory neurone to transport the signal to the intermediate neurone or CNS
Why does the pacinian corpuscle need a neurone ending?
.It needs a neurone ending to sense when change occurs and so send a signal, it’s in the middle so that even pressure is felt evenly at all angles
Describe how the nerve membrane in the pacinian corpuscle works
.When the nerve membrane is at rest, the stretch mediated sodium channels are very tight and do not allow the passage of molecules – this doesn’t allow the diffusion of Na+ into the cell from the outside
.When pressure is applied the membrane of the nerve ending becomes stretched, this causes the stretch mediated sodium channels to open and so allow the passage of molecules – this allows the diffusion of Na+ into the cell from outside
How does the pacinian corpuscle work?
.Sensory neurone has sodium channel in its plasma membrane called stretch-mediated sodium channel
.Permeability to sodium ions changes when they change shape
.Pressure on skin = pressure on lamellae = pressure on neuron = stretch mediated channels open = sodium influx = generator potential (nerve impulse) occurs
What is the pacinian corpuscle like when no pressure is applied?
.Stretch-mediated sodium channels are narrow
.Sodium ions cannot/few pass through
.A generator potential is not established
Describe how our sight works, how does light turn into an image in our brain?
.Light passes through the cornea which bends it
.Light goes through the pupil and is focused further by the lens
.An image is formed on the light sensitive cells in the retina
.Retina sends an impulses along the sensory neurones in the optic nerve
.The brain converts impulses into pictures
What is the retina?
Innermost part of the eye where light receptors are found
What are the light receptor cells?
The eye has two types of photoreceptors, found primarily at the retina:
- Rod cells
- Cone cells
How are rod and cone cells similar?
Both act as transducers
.Both convert light energy into the electrical energy of a nerve impulse
.Both are specific to different stimuli
How do red and cone cells work?
- Contain a specific pigment
- Pigment is broken down by a specific wavelength of light
- If broken down a message is sent to the brain
What is there more of, rod or cone cells?
rod cells (20:1)
What pigment is present in rod cells?
Rhodopsin
What pigment is present in cone cells?
3 different pigments of iodopsin
Do rod cells see colour or black and white?
Black and white
Do cone cells see colour or black and white?
Colour
Where are rod cells found?
Top and bottom of eye
Where are cone cells found?
Fovea
Which light intensity is required to break down rod cells?
Broken down at low light intensities
Which light intensity is required to break down cone cells?
Broken down at high light intensity
Visual acuity of rod cell
low
Visual acuity of cone cell
high
Neural connections of rod cell
Often share a single sensory neurone (retinal convergence)
Neural connections of cone cell
Own bipolar cell connected to a sensory neurone
To create generator potential the pigment (rhodopsin) inside the rod cells must be broken down, but:
- Threshold value must be exceeded
- Shared neurone ensures an additive effect of each lower light intensity
Describe how blood moves through the heart
Deoxygenated blood vena cava right atrium atrioventricular valve right ventricle pulmonary artery (out the semi-lunar valve) lungs oxygenated pulmonary vein left atrium tricuspid valve left ventricle aorta (and the semi-lunar valve) rest of the body.
Name the parts of the heart (not valves or nodes)
- Right atrium
- Right ventricle
- Left atrium
- Left ventricle
- Pulmonary artery
- Aorta
- Vena Cava
- Pulmonary vein
Two nodes control the heart beat, together they initiate the cardiac cycle, what are they?
.Sinoatrial node (SAN) – the natural pacemaker
.Atrioventricular node (AV)
Describe how the heart is made to beat?
- SAN sends an electrical impulse across the atria, the atria contracts
- The AVN is non-conductive and stops the impulse travelling to the ventricles
- The electrical activity travels to the AVN
- After a pause, the AVN sends an impulse down the bundle of his
- The bundle of his conducts the impulse through the purkinje fibres
- This causes the contraction of the left and right ventricles from the bottom up
Why is the SAN considered the natural pacemaker?
as it sets the electrical output, and so makes the heart pump
Why are the purkinje fibres important?
as they make sure the electrical signal is sent to all the muscle cells so that the heart contracts fully
Where does the ventricle contract from?
The apex
What is the medulla oblongata?
.A cone shaped neuronal mass
.Responsible for involuntary functions
.Contains the cardiac, respiratory and vomiting centres
.Controls breathing, heart rate and blood pressure
What two centres are in the cardiac centre of the medulla oblongata? How are they linked to the SAN?
- Increases HR
o Linked to SAN by the sympathetic nervous system - Decreases HR
o Linked to SAN by the parasympathetic nervous system
What types of receptors are responsible for rate of heart beat?
- Chemical changes in the blood
o (chemoreceptors in the carotid arteries) - Pressure changes in the blood
o (Pressure receptors in the carotid arteries and aorta)
How does the body respond when blood pressure is high?
- Nerve impulse is sent to the centre in the medulla
- The centre sends an impulse via the parasympathetic nervous system to the SAN
- This decreases the rate at which the heart beats
How does the body respond when blood pressure is low?
- Nerve impulse is sent to the centre in the medulla
- The centre sends an impulse via the sympathetic nervous system to the SAN
- This increases the rate at which the heart beats
Describe what chemoreceptors are and where they are?
.Found in the walls of the carotid arteries (serve the brain)
.Detect pH changes in the blood
What are changes in the pH of blood caused by?
- Carbon dioxide in the blood
How does the Medulla Oblongata control blood pH? (6 marks)
.High respiratory rate
.Releasing a lot of carbon dioxide into the blood
.Carbon dioxide in blood decreases the pH
.The change in pH is picked up by the chemoreceptors in the walls of the carotid arties
.A nerve impulse is sent to the cardiac centre in the medulla oblongata
.The centre sends an impulse via the sympathetic nervous system to the SAN
.This increases the rate at which the heart beats
.This means more blood is being pumped round the body, to pick up the extra CO2 and resultantly increase the pH of the blood back to normal levels
What are nerve cells (also called neurones)?
- Highly specialised cells
- Adapted to rapidly carry electrochemical changes (nerve impulses)
- Amongst the largest cells in the body (especially in length)
Draw and label a basic nerve cell
check notes or google
Function of cell body
Contains the nucleus and large amount of rough endoplasmic reticulum. Nucleus holds DNA and controls the cell, large amounts of RER to form neurotransmitters
Function of axon
Collect and carry the nerve impulse away from the cell body
Function of myelin sheath
Multiple cells wrapped around the axon; they increase the speed of the impulse, wrapped around to form Myelin layer
Function of nodes of ranvier
Gaps where there is no myelination, increases speed
Function of shwan cells
Individual cells protect the neurone, provide electrical insulation
Function of dendrite
Extensions of the cell body, carry impulses towards the cell body, increase action potential
Function of dendrons
Extensions of the cell body, thickest part of the branches, they subdivide into dendrites
How are motor neurones different? Why?
- Lots of dendrites, to make sure it gathers as much information as possible
- Axons split into 3 at the end, to make sure a response occurs by carrying the impulse to different places
- Cell body at basic position, to pick up neurone and carry it
- Long axon length, to carry the signal far
- Nerve endings at muscle or gland
How are sensory neurones different? Why?
- Nerve endings in tissue, like skin
- Cell body not at end, mid-way
- Dendrites come off the end in different places, so it can send different messages to coordinate a response
How are intermediate neurones different? Why?
- Short axon
- Lots of dendrites
What is a nerve impulse?
- A self-propagating wave of electrical disturbance that travels along the surface of the axon membrane
Specifically, it is a temporary reversal of the electrical potential difference across the axon membrane
NOT in the neurone
NOT an electrical current
What are the two states of a nerve impulse?
- Action potential
- Resting potential
What is resting potential?
- Negative inside
- Positive outside
What is action potential?
- A nerve impulse occurs when there is a temporary reversal of these charges
- The reversal is then propagated along the axon
- Neurones send messages ________
electrochemically
- Chemicals in the body are _____ charged
electrically
The important ions in the nervous system are:
- Sodium (1+ charge)
- Potassium (1+ charge)
What controls nervous system ions movement?
- Phospholipid bilayer
- Intrinsic proteins
- Gated channels
How is ion movement controlled?
- Phospholipid bilayer
o Non-polar fatty acid tails repel charged molecules - Intrinsic proteins
o Ion channels allow specific ions to pass - Gated channels
o Na+ and K+ gated channels control amount of movement
Value of resting potential
= -65mV
describe the Formation of a Resting Potential
- Na+ are actively pumped out of the axon by sodium-potassium pumps
- K+ are actively pumped into the axon by sodium-potassium pumps
- For every 3Na+ pumped out, 2K+ move in
- There are more Na+ outside (tissue fluid), than there are inside the axon cytoplasm, a chemical gradient is formed
- Due to the gradient, Na+ try to move back in and K+ try to more out, down there concentration gradient
- However, the Na+ gates are shut, and the K+ gates are open
- So only the K+ can move, and so they leave the axon
- At this point the membrane is 100x more permeable to K+
- This causes K+ to diffuse out faster than Na+ can move in, causing the outside of the axon to become positively polarised, and the inside of the axon to become negatively polarised
- But now, due to the massive positive charge outside of the axon (electrical gradient), some K+ are compelled to move back inside, they are attracted to the negative charge and repelled by the positive outside
- Some of the K+ do move back in, but an equilibrium is formed, where there is no more net movement of ions
- The electrical and chemical gradient becomes balanced, and the resting potential is established
• The energy of a stimuli causes ________________________ on the axon membrane
a temporary reversal of the charge
• Resting potential value meaning?
the difference in charge across the membrane
What is the change in charge from resting potential to action potential?
• The temporary reversal causes the charge of -65mV difference in the resting potential to become a +40mV difference
What happens to the membrane when it goes from -60mV to +45mV?
It is depolarised
Where is negative and positive in action potential?
outside negative, inside positive