Monday October 4th, 2021
Sense Organs
Sensory Receptors
• These receive input, generate receptor potentials and with enough
summation, generate action potentials in the neurons they are part of or
synapse with
5 Types of Sensory Receptors (based on the type of stimuli they detect)
1. Mechano Receptors
pressure receptors, stretch receptors, and specialised mechanoreceptors
involved in movement and balance.
2. Thermo Receptors
skin and viscera, respond to both external and internal temperature
3. Pain Receptors
stimulated by lack of O2, chemicals released from damaged cells and
inflammatory cells
4. Chemo Receptors
detect changes in levels of O2, CO2, and H+ ions (pH) as well as chemicals
that stimulate taste and smell receptors
5. Photo Receptors
stimulated by light
Distribution of Receptors in the body:
Special Senses
• mediated by relatively complex sense organs of the head, innervated by
cranial nerves
• vision, hearing, equilibrium, taste and smell
General (somesthetic, somatosensory)
• receptors widely distributed in skin, muscles, tendons, joints, and viscera
• they detect touch, pressure, stretch, heat, cold and pain, blood pressure
Special Senses
Sensation and perception
• Vision – Eye
• Hearing – Ear
• Equilibrium – Ear
• Taste – Taste receptors
• Smell – Olfactory system
General Senses
Skin
• Hot, cold, pressure, pain
Muscles, Joints, and Tendons
• proprioceptors- stretch receptors respond to stretch or compression
Pain Receptors
• somatic or visceral
Speical Senses
Eye - Vision
Processes
• Light energy is transduced into neural activity
• Neural activity is processed by the brain
note
• For an analogy, you can imagine taking a picture with a camera. The eye is
the camera, the retina, which is a specialised part of the brain at the back of
the eye, is the film, and the parts of the brain that process visual information
is the photoshop.
Human visual systems permit light reflected off distant objects to be:
• Localised relative to the individual within his or her environment • Identified
based on size, shape, colour, and past experience
• Perceived to be moving (or not)
• Detected in a wide variety of lighting conditions
Sequence of events
• Light entering the eye is focused on the retina
• Retina converts light energy into neuronal activity
• Axons of the retinal neurons are bundled to form the optic nerves
• Visual information is distributed to several brain structures that perform
different functions
Eye (the organ used to sense light)
Three Layers:
Outer Layer
• consists of sclera and cornea
Middle Layer
• consists of choroid, ciliary body and iris
Inner Layer
• consists of retina
Extraocular muscles
• attached to the eye and skull and allow movement.
Anatomy of the Eye
Functions of the major parts of the eye:
Sclera or Scleroid Layer
• (white of eye) the outermost layer that forms the eyeball- a tough protective
layer of connective tissue that helps maintain the shape of the eye and
provides an attachment for the muscles that move the eye.
Conjunctiva
• membrane inside the eyelid attached to the sclera.
Cornea
• the transparent surface covering the iris and pupil- a clear, dome-shaped
part of the sclera covering the front of the eye through which light enters the
eye.
Anterior Chamber
• a small chamber between the cornea and the pupil.
Aqueous Humour
• fluid behind the cornea - the clear fluid that fills that anterior chamber of the
eye and helps to maintain the shape of the cornea providing most of the
nutrients for the lens and the cornea and involved in waste management in
the front of the eye.
Choroid Layer
• middle layer of the eye containing may blood vessels.
Ciliary Body
• the ciliary body is a circular band of muscle that is connected and sits
immediately behind the iris- produces aqueous humour, changes shape of
lens for focusing.
Iris
• circular muscle that controls the diameter of the pupil the pigmented front
portion of the choroid layer and contains the blood vessels - it determines the
eye colour and it controls the amount of light that enters the eye by changing
the size of the pupil (an albino only has the blood vessels – not pigment so it
appears red or pink because of the blood vessels)
Lens
• a crystalline structure located just behind the iris - it focuses light onto the
retina.
Pupil
• the opening in the centre of the iris- it changes size as the amount of light
changes (the more light, the smaller the hole) and it allows light to reach the
retina.
Vitreous
• a thick, transparent liquid that fills the centre of the eye - it is mostly water
and gives the eye its form and shape (also called the vitreous humour)
Retina
• axons of the retina leaving the eye - sensory tissue that lines the back of the
eye. It contains millions of photoreceptors (rods for black & white and cones
for colour ) that convert light rays into electrical impulses that are relayed to
the brain via the optic nerve.
Optic Nerve
• the nerve that transmits electrical impulses from the retina to the brain.
Opthalmoscopic appearance
(Retina as seen through the pupil)
Note
• in photographs, the red appearance of the
eye is actually the retina photographed. Double
flash camera causes the pupil to constrict.
Optic Disk
• (blind spot) -no vision is possible
• Blood vessels originate here.
• The vessels shadow the retina
• Optic nerve fibres exit here
• No photoreceptors
Macula
• area of the retina responsible for central
• vision (vs. peripheral)
Fovea
• centre of the retina ( where most of the cones are)
Common eye defects include:
Myopia or Nearsightedness
• where the eyeball is too long or the cornea is too steep.
Hyperopia or Farsightedness
• where the eyeball is short or lens cannot become round enough.
Presbyopia
• where the muscles controlling the bulging of the lens become weak as we age.
Cataracts
• where the lens becomes fogged
Nyctalopia or Night Blindness
• where vision is impaired in dim light and in the dark due to pigment
rhodospin in the rods not functioning properly External features of the eye
Cross sectional anatomy
Lens
• transparent surface that contributes to the formation of images (w/i 9 meters)
Ciliary muscles
• change the shape of the lens and allow focusing
Vitreous humour
• more viscous than the aqueous humour
• Lies between the lens and the retina and provides spherical shape
Retina
• inner most layer of cells at the back of the eye
• Transduces light energy into neural activity
Images
• the cornea and the lens help to produce the image on the retina
• images formed by the lens are upside down and backwards when they reach
the retina two types of receptors on the retina
Rods
• 125 million on a single retina
• extremely sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light but do not distinguish
different colour
• in dim light only rods are activated where one can see objects but not as
sharp images and are not able to distinguish their colour
• most dense in peripheral view
• nighttime vision rods have a pigment called rhodospin
• As amount of light increases, the cones (7 million on a single retina) mainly in
central view are stimulated and the colour becomes clear (daytime vision)
• There are three types of cones which distinguish the three colours (blue, red,
green)
Fovea
• point of central focus
• great density of cones
• centre of the eye's sharpest vision and the location of most colour perception
• the layers of the retina spread aside to let light fall directly on the cones
• Light stimulates rods and cones and sends impulse via optic nerve to brain
areas for vision
• The Optic Nerve exits the eye just off centre near the Fovea - the Optic Nerve
exits is referred to as the Blind Spot due to the lack of the receptors in this
area
• The two Optic Nerves come together at the Optic Chiasm located just under
the hypothalamus - a crucial part of vision and perception must happen -
cross-over of information from the right eye crosses over to the left side and
visa versa happens here at the Optic Chiasm
• Information from each eye must be processed in both halves of the brain
• Information leaves the chiasm via the optic tract.
• Reorganised optic tract leaves the Optic Chiasm and passes onto the lateral
geniculate nucleus
• At the lateral geniculate nuclei the information is separated, organised, and
relayed to different areas of the visual cortex
• The different zones of the visual cortex process the different aspects of vision
and information, taken from both visual fields, is processed and an image is
perceived.
General Senses
Skin Receptors
• Your skin and deeper tissues contain millions of sensory receptors. Most of
your touch receptors sit close to your skin's surface.
Touch Receptors (fine touch)
• Meissner's corpuscles are enclosed in a capsule of connective tissue
• They react to light touch and are located in the skin of your palms, soles, lips,
eyelids, external genitals and nipples
• these areas of your body are particularly sensitive.
Merkel disks
• found deep at junction of epidermis and dermis
Root Hair Plexus
• at base of hair follicle
Touch Receptors (pressure sensitive)
• Pacinian corpuscles sense pressure and vibration changes deep in your skin.
• Every square centimeter of your skin contains around 14 pressure receptors
• Pacinian corpuscles – deep pressure sensors, onion shaped capsule (layers of
Schwann cells enclosed in a
• connective tissue membrane), respond to on-off pressure or vibration
• Ruffini’s endings and Krause's end bulbs – encapsulated pressure sensors,
dermis (and elsewhere), respond to continuous pressure
Pain
• skin receptors register pain
• pain receptors are the most numerous
• each square centimetre of your skin contains around 200 pain receptors
Temperature
• skin receptors register warmth and cold
• each square centimetre of your skin contains 6 receptors for cold and 1
receptor for warmth
Cold Receptors
• start to perceive cold sensations when the surface of the skin drops below 95
o F. They are most stimulated when the surface of the skin is at 77 o F and are
no longer stimulated when the surface of the skin drops below 41 o F. This is
why your feet or hands start to go numb when they are submerged in icy
water for a long period of time.
Hot Receptors
• start to perceive hot sensations when the surface of the skin rises above 86 o
F and are most stimulated at 113 o F. Beyond 113 o F, pain receptors take over
to avoid damage being done to the skin and underlying tissues.
Thermo Receptors
• are found all over the body, but cold receptors are found in greater density
than heat receptors
• most of the time of our environment is colder than our body temperature
• The highest concentration of thermo receptors can be found in the face and
ears so your nose and ears always get colder faster than the rest of your body
on a chilly winter day
Proprioceptors
• Stretch receptors located in joints, ligaments, and tendons (respond to either
stretch or compression)
• Maintain some degree of continuous contraction (partial sustained
contraction) or muscle tone
Muscle Spindles
• modified muscle fibres with sensory nerve endings wrapped around the
middle (and also found at the ends)
• Detect stretch and stimulate a reflex contraction; think about banging on
your patellar ligament (just an extension of a quadriceps tendon) and
watching your knee jerk up – the quadriceps contracted in response to the
stretch of the patellar ligament, which stretched muscle spindles and )
impulses are sent to the hamstring group (the antagonists) to cause them to
relax, so they don’t oppose the contraction of the quadriceps
Pain Receptors (nociceptors)
• Somatic nociceptors - from skin and skeletal muscle
• Visceral nociceptors - receptors that help maintain internal homeostasis
• Respond to stretch, lack of O2, chemicals released from damaged cells and
inflammatory cells.
Referred Pain
• visceral pain afferents travel along the same pathways as somatic pain
afferents, so sometimes the brain interprets the visceral pain as the more
common somatic pain.
Example – Often pain from the heart felt during a heart attack is perceived as a
pain that originates in the left arm.
