Chapter 1 World Through Our Senses

Our senses detect stimuli and we respond.

Human have receptors or sense organs such as:
The skin responds to touch, pressure, pain, heat and cold.

The tongue responds to chemical in our food and drink. It gives us our
sense of taste

The nose responds to chemical in the air. It gives us our sense of smell.

The ears respond to sound vibrations and movements. They give us our
sense of hearing and our balance.

The eyes respond to light rays. They give us our sense of sight.
Nervous pathway from stimulus to response:

Stimulus

Sensory organs

Sensory nerves

Brain

Motor nerves

Response
Skin
The skin is made up of three layers- the epidermis, the dermis and the
fatty layer.
There are many different types of sensors in the skin.
The number of sensors varies in different parts of our body.
The sensitivity of the skin depends on two factors:
The thickness of the epidermis
The number of receptors
-Pain receptors
are at the skin surface. They are branched and respond to intense stimuli.
-Some touch receptors are attached to the base of our hair. So you can feel
it they are being pulled.
-Pressure receptors are in the fatty layer. It is used to detect pressure
exerted on the skin.
-Heat receptors are located below the epidermis. It detects heat or any rise
of temperature.
-Cold receptors are also located below the epidermis. It detects a cold
substances or any fall in temperature.
Tongue
Your senses of taste and smell are closely linked. They are both chemical
senses.
What things can you taste?
-You can only taste sweet, sour, bitter, and salty things. People think that
they can taste other things but they are actually using their sense of
smell.
The sensors that give you your sense of taste are found in little grooves
on your tongue. They are call taste buds.
Each taste bud can only taste one taste. The different types of taste buds
are found in particular areas on the tongue. The taste buds send nervous
impulses along the nerves to the brain for its interpretation. When food
is placed in the mouth, the saliva dissolves the food and the chemicals
stimulate the taste buds.
Nervous pathway for detecting taste:
Food (stimuli)

Saliva dissolves food

Chemical in food stimulate taste buds

Taste buds send impulses to brain

The brain interprets the impulses

Different areas of the tongue are especially sensitive to different taste

Nose
Our nose also senses chemical but it is thousands of time more sensitive
than your sense of taste. Smells are chemical in the air. The chemical
dissolve in the moist lining of your nose. They stimulate sensors in your
nose to send impulses to the brain. The brain interprets these impulses as
different smells.The nasal cavities have glands which produce a sticky
fluid called mucus.

A person having a cold cannot smell well. This is because the sensory
cells are covered with a lot mucus and not much chemicals can reach
and stimulate the sensory cells. The nervous pathway can be
summarized as follows:
Chemical enter the nose

Chemical dissolves in mucus

Chemical stimulate thesensory cells

The sensory cells produce nervous impulses

Nervous impulses aresent along the nerves to the brain

The brain interprets the impulses as a certain smell

Ears
The air around us is full of sound waves. You ears work by converting
these sound waves into nerve impulses. This I show it happens:
The outer part of your ear funnels the sound waves into the ear canal
The sound waves travel along the ear canal to the eardrum.
The eardrum starts to vibrate when sound waves hit it
The vibrations are passed on to 3 little bones called the ossicles
The ossicles pass the vibrations on to the inner eardrum or oval
window
When oval window vibrates it causes fluid in the cochlea to move
Inside the cochlea are lots of tiny, sensory hairs. Movement of the fluid
sets these hairs vibrating. They send off nerve impulses to the brain
The brain interprets these impulses as sounds
Eye
The nervous pathway is as follow:
Cornea

aqueous humour

pupil

eye lens

vitreous humour

retina

optic nerve

brain

Light travels in a straight line.

Light can travel through vacuum.
Light can be reflected and absorbed
A periscope and akaleidoscope uses the reflection of light
Light can be refracted.
Light is refracted when light travels from a medium to another medium.

Defects of Vision
Long-sightedness
Short-sightedness
Astigmatism
Color blindness
Optical illusion
Blind spot
There are two kinds of vision:
Stereoscopic vision
Monocular vision