Chapter 3

Jingying T.A.
Department of Physiology
willa2004@yahoo.com
 review
 sensory receptors
 sensation
 review
neuronal pools:
 review

Features of neuronal circuit:

 Single direction
 Synaptic delay: 0.3~0.5ms
 Summation: spatial and temporal
 Change of excitatory rhythm
 Easily to fatigue
 After-discharges
 sensory receptors
types of sensory receptors and the sensory stimuli:

1 mechanoreceptors: detect mechanical distortion or

movement. e.g pressure receptors in the skin and stretch
receptors in muscles.

2 photoreceptors: detect electromagnetic radiation, like

the rods and cones in the retina.
 sensory receptors

3 chemoreceptors: sensitive to chemical stimuli, eg: taste

receptors in the tongue or respiratory chemoreceptors
responsive to blood gases and pH.

4 thermoreceptors: detect hot and cold.

* nocireceptors: called pain receptors.

 sensory receptors
character of sensory receptors:

1.Adequate stimulus
Different sensitivity

2.Transduction
Receptor potential
(also called : Generator potential)
3.Encoding
Property: special receptor—labeled line (modality of sensation)
Intensity: frequency of AP and number of fiber
4.Adaptation
Rapidly adapting receptor eg.
Slow adapting receptor eg.
 sensory receptors

receptor stimulus

eg: photoreceptors is sensitive most to light.

light

strike
 sensory receptors

 Receptor potential: local electrical currents

 Mechanism of receptor potential:

sensory receptor
change the membrane permeability to ions
ions flow across the membrane
change the membrane potential.

 From receptor-potential
to action potential
sensory receptors
 sensation

General outline of sensory pathway :


ascending tracts: cross or non-cross

relaying nuclei: 3
 sensation
AP Primary sensory neurons
Sensory
receptors

Nuclei in spinal cord or brain stem

thalamus

Sensory
cortex
 sensation
Somatosensory system:
 responsible for the sensations of
----
touch,
temperature,
proprioception (joint position),
pain.

 Pathway---neurons:
1st : dorsal root ganglia
2: spinal cord ()
3: thalamus
 sensation

Pathway---tracts:
1 a.the dorsal column
b.the anterolateral column
2 medical lemniscus
3 sensory projection system
 sensation

Two pathways:
Dorsal column – medial lemniscal system.
Anterolateral system---
Lateral spinothalamic tract
Anterior spinothalamic tract
 sensation


Dorsal column – medial lemniscus
Fine touch and proprioception
 sensation
1. Touch sensations requiring a high
degree of localization of the situation.
2. Touch sensations requiring transmission
of fine gradation of intensity
3. Phasic sensation, such as vibratory
sensation
4. Sensations that signal movement against
skin
5. Position sensation from the joints
dorsal
6. Pressure sensation having to do with fine cloumn
degrees of judgment of pressure intensity pathway
 sensation

 Anterolateral system
 sensation
1. Pain
2. Thermal sensation, including
both warm and cold sensation
3. Crude touch and pressure
sensation capable of only
crude localizing ability on the
surface of the body
4. Tickle and itch sensations
5. Sexual sensations spinothalamic
pathway
 sensation
 Thalamus:
1. Specific sensory relay nucleus
2. Associated nucleus
3. Nonspecific projection nucleus
 sensation
 Sensory projection system:
specific
non-specific
 sensation

Specific non-specific
specific area ， wide area no point to point
Project area point to point mainly in every layer
in layer 4 axon-body axon-dendrite synapse
synapse

Function Definite sensation Keep cerebral cortex to be

excitatory
 sensation
 somatosensory cortex
 Features:
1) Each side of the cortex
receives sensory information
exclusively from the opposite
side of the body (the exception:
the same side of the face).

2) The lips, face and thumb are

represented by large areas in the
somatic cortex, whereas the
trunk and lower part of the body,
relatively small area.

3) The head in the most lateral

portion, and the lower body is
presented medially.
the knee-jerk reflex
Somatic sensory receptors in the skin
Rods and cones in retina
the tongue, its papillae, and its taste buds.
structure of the olfactory epithelium
 Structure of a segment of the spinal cord and its roots