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    The Senses, Third Edition
    The Senses, Third Edition
    The Senses, Third Edition
    Ebook206 pages2 hours

    The Senses, Third Edition

    By James Wynbrandt

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    About this ebook

    The human body's sense organs are its physical link between the brain and the surrounding environment. Our senses of sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing allow us to interact with and adapt to the ever-changing world that surrounds us. The Senses, Third Edition gives an introduction to the intricate structures and functions of the body's sense organs, and examines some of the most common diseases that affect these organs. Readers will learn how even a temporary problem with one of the senses can dramatically affect how our bodies perceive the world. Packed with full-color photographs and illustrations, this absorbing book provides students with sufficient background information through references, websites, and a bibliography.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChelsea House
    Release dateOct 1, 2021
    ISBN9781646937257
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      Book preview

      The Senses, Third Edition - James Wynbrandt

      title

      The Senses, Third Edition

      Copyright © 2021 by Infobase

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information, contact:

      Chelsea House

      An imprint of Infobase

      132 West 31st Street

      New York NY 10001

      ISBN 978-1-64693-725-7

      You can find Chelsea House on the World Wide Web

      at http://www.infobase.com

      Contents

      Chapters

      Sensory Receptors and Sensation

      The General Senses

      Sense of Taste

      Sense of Smell

      Accessory Structures of the Eye

      Structure of the Eye

      Sense of Sight

      Sense of Hearing

      Sense of Equilibrium

      Sense of Thirst and Hunger

      Support Materials

      Glossary

      Bibliography

      Further Resources

      About the Authors

      Index

      Chapters

      Sensory Receptors and Sensation

      The human brain is truly an amazing organ. Although it weighs only about 1.4 kilograms (3 pounds), this highly organized collection of cells lets us communicate with others, perform mental tasks, remember homework assignments, understand concepts, be aware of our surroundings, and move our body parts. However, the brain would be useless without its connections to the rest of the body and to the outside world. In fact, as strange as it sounds, we do not experience our environment and the events taking place within our bodies directly or in their entirety. Instead, we experience them by way of specialized sense organs that send information to the brain, where that information is processed and interpreted. In other words, just about everything we know about the world comes to us through our senses, and everything we do depends on receiving and correctly interpreting information from our external and internal environments.

      Sensation and Perception

      A stimulus is a change in the internal or external environment that can be detected by the nervous system in order to generate a response. A stimulus is detected by sensory receptors, which transmit information about the stimulus through the nervous system to the brain in the form of nerve impulses. The brain interprets these nerve impulses to generate a sensation, the detection of a stimulus and how it relates to the body. A perception involves interpreting and giving meaning to a sensation based on what we have experienced and learned. For instance, stepping on a tack will cause a sensation of pain, whereas an awareness of being injured would be considered a perception. Perception is important in determining how we will respond to a particular stimulus. Two people who experience the same sensation may have different perceptions of that stimulus based on their past experience and expectations. Both sensation and perception are functions of the brain—specifically, a part of the brain called the cerebral cortex, which is the outermost layer of the cerebrum (see figure below).

      The outermost layer of the brain is the cerebral cortex, a layer of neural tissue about 2 to 4 millimeters (0.08 to 0.16 inches) thick that is the outmost layer of the cerebrum. It is in the cerebral cortex that the brain identifies and interprets sensations.

      Source: Infobase Learning.

      Reflexes

      The sensation and perception of sensory stimuli are used to generate behavioral, mental, and emotional responses. Although our brain has the ability to generate fast behavioral responses (less than one second response time) to incoming stimuli, there are some occasions when it is important for the body to execute a behavioral response even faster than our brain's ability to sense and perceive a stimulus. For instance, if you were to accidentally touch a hot stove or step on a pointy object while barefoot, it would be important to remove your hand or foot from the hazardous stimulus as quickly as possible, and you would probably do so without even having to think about it. This type of extremely fast and unplanned response to a stimulus is called a reflex. Reflexes happen very quickly because they do not require nerve impulses to travel all the way to the cerebral cortex, but instead rely on signals in the spinal cord and peripheral nervous system (see figure below).

      A simple reflex arc demonstrating the interconnection of the sensory (black), motor (red), and association (white in the spinal cord) neurons. Notice that the brain is not involved in the reflex itself. Eventually (in a split second) it becomes aware of the flame.

      Source: Infobase.

      The Role of Sensory Receptors

      Sensations, and the perceptions they evoke, begin with sensory reception, the detection of a stimulus (or, more accurately, the energy of a stimulus) by sensory receptors. Sensory receptors are anatomical structures made up of specialized cells that respond to specific changes in their environment. In so doing, they provide the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) with information about conditions both inside and outside the body. In this way, sensory receptors are the physical links between your central nervous system and the environment (see figure below).

      Scientists have different ways of testing human sensory receptors. A researcher may probe a person's hand with an electrical signal to stimulate it and record how often parts of the brain send and receive signals about the sensation. The median nerve of the arm transmits the impulses from the sensory receptors of the hand to the brain.

      Source: Infobase Learning.

      Transduction and Receptor Potentials

      Sensory receptors work by first detecting a stimulus and then translating that energy into electrical signals, which are conducted by nerve cells, or neurons, to the central nervous system. Turning a stimulus into an electrical signal is called transduction (a transducer is a device that changes one form of energy into another). Specialized sensory receptors are needed to detect stimuli because the brain does not have the ability to transduce sensory stimuli on its own. That is, the brain is designed to receive electrical signals from the nervous system; beyond that, it is essentially blind to all other forms of stimuli. This explains why neurosurgeons may perform procedures on the brain of an awake patient. Only a local anesthetic is needed for the scalp because the brain cannot directly sense touch or pain.

      Sensory receptor cells transduce stimuli using specialized receptor proteins. Some receptor proteins act as enzymes that lead to biochemical change inside of cells when they are activated by a stimulus. Other receptor proteins act as transporters for charged ions to cross cell membranes when they are activated by a stimulus. For both types of receptor proteins, the outcome of activation by a stimulus is for the sensory receptor cell to change its cell membrane permeability to ions—how many and what kinds of ions it allows to pass through.¹ In response to activation of a receptor protein by an appropriate stimulus, transport pathways for specific ions open and/or close, depending on the type of stimulus and receptor (see figure below). Because ions are electrically charged, this leads to the movement of an electrical charge across the cell membrane, resulting in a graded change in the membrane potential (measured as voltage), which is called a receptor potential. The magnitude of a receptor potential is directly related to how strong the stimulus is. If a receptor potential is large enough, it may result in the generation of action potentials (also called nerve impulses) in the sensory neurons that carry sensory information to the spinal cord and brain. The number of action potentials that are produced in this way is proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus. So a larger stimulus will lead to the production of a greater number of action potentials.²

      When action potentials reach the spinal cord and brain, they are interpreted by the central nervous system to sense and perceive the stimulus. However, much of the sensory information that goes to the central nervous system is filtered out by specific parts of the brain; as a result, no sensation is perceived for many stimuli. This is important because the brain would otherwise be overloaded with too many signals to sort through. For instance, we are usually not aware of our muscle tension or blood pH levels (pH meaning a measurement of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution). We also have the ability to listen to a friend in a noisy restaurant, while simultaneously tuning out the myriad of other conversations and sounds around us.

      Sensory receptors respond to stimuli by changing the permeability of their cell membranes to let in or keep out specific ions. They do this with the help of transport proteins, which create pores that allow the passage of certain ions through the membrane.

      Source: Infobase Learning.

      Sensory Modality and Receptor Specificity

      We are able to distinguish a variety of sensory stimuli because each kind of stimulus activates different types of receptor cells and receptor proteins. The term modality refers to the type of sensation a stimulus produces. Each category of sensation, such as touch, taste, or sound, is a sensory modality. The features that characterize stimuli within a certain modality are called qualities. For instance, light can be red or blue, taste can be sweet or sour, and sounds can be high or low in pitch.

      Each receptor cell and receptor protein is responsive to a single stimulus modality. For example, a receptor for light does not react to sound waves, and a taste receptor that responds to dissolved chemicals does not respond to light. This concept of receptors responding only to a particular stimulus is called receptor specificity. Interestingly, and amazingly, many receptors can detect the smallest physical unit of stimulus possible. For example, some receptor cells of the nose can respond to a single molecule of odor! The receptor cells of the inner ear can sense motion of only a few angstroms (about the size of a single water molecule), and many photoreceptor cells can detect a single photon of light.

      Receptors can be categorized in different ways based on:

      the type

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