The Special Senses Powerpoint by Victoria

THE SPECIAL
SENSES
Victoria Frawert
Anatomy
THE SENSES
 There are five general senses:
Touch, sight, taste, smell, and hearing. Equilibrium
is considered a special sense as well, found in the
ear.
 Chemical Senses (Taste & Smell)
 Chemoreceptors – Receptors for taste & smell that only
respond to chemicals.
 Excited by chemicals dissolved in saliva & airborn chemicals
dissolved in nasal membranes.
 Taste buds: located in oral cavity; 10,000; most in tongue
papillae; each taste bud has 40-100 epithelial cells made
of 3 major types.
 Supporting Cells: separate and insulate
 Receptor Cells: deal with taste
 Basal cells: like stem cells, they give rise to new cells
 Taste Sensations
 Sweet at tip of tongue
 Salty & sour on the sides
 Bitter in the back

 Physiology of Taste
 Activation
 To be tasted, first must be dissolved in saliva, diffuse into the pore and
make contact with gustatory hairs which trigger neurotransmitters to elicit
action potentials in these fibers.
 Adapt rapidly 3-5 seconds & completely in 1-5 minutes
 Taste Transduction
 Process in which stimulus energy is converted into a nerve impulse due
to influx of different ions
 Gustatory Pathway
 Taste is carried in two cranial nervers
 Facial: anterior 2/3rds of tongue
 Glossopharyngeal: posterior 1/3rd
 Taste triggers reflexes in digestion such as increasing saliva & gastric
juice
 Influence of other sensations on taste
 Taste is 80% smell, when olfactory receptors are blocked food becomes
bland
 Thermoreceptors, mechanoreceptors, nociceptors, temperature and
texture can enhance or detract
 Olfactory & Sense of Smell
 Structure
 Detects chemicals in solution
 Olfactory Epithelium:
 Located on roof of nasal cavity
 Contain olfactory receptor cells with columnar supporting

cells
 Covered by mucous to trap airborn molecules
 Physiology
 In order to smell the substance must be in a gaseous state
 Must be water soluble to dissolve in olfactory epithelium
 Bind to protein receptors which open ion channels that send

action potentials to olfactory bulb
 Pathway
 Send impulses from bulb down tract
 Thalmus  Frontal Lobe or Hypothalmus to interpret and elicit
emotional responses to odor
 Imablances include anosmias (without smells) from
head injuries; unicinate fits (olfactory hallucinations)
EYE & VISION
 Accessory Structures
 Eyebrows
 Shade the eyes
 Prevent perspiration into eye
 Eyelids
 Palpabrae protects eye
 Levator palpebrae superioris raises eyelid
 Eyelashes trigger blinking
 Conjunctiva
 Mucous membrane over eyelids and anterior surface of
eyeball (white part)
 Vascular, when irritated eyes are blood shot
 Lacrimal Apparatus
 Consist of gland and ducts that drain
excess secretions into nasal cavity
 Secretes saline solution (tears)
 Contains mucous, antibodies, and
lysosomes to clean eye & destroy
bacteria
 Eye muscles
 Movement is controlled by 6 muscles
 Four Rectus muscles:
Superior, Inferior, Lateral, Medial
 Two Oblique muscles: Superior, Inferior
 Nerve Innervation:
abducens, trochlear, oculomotor
 Lens : Divides eye into anterior and

posterior segments
 Transparent, flexible structure that can
change shape to allow focus of light on
retina
 Avascular
 Becomes less elastic through life causing
focus impairment
 Cataract – cloudy lens due to thickening of
lens or diabetes
 Structure of the Eyeball
 Divided into 3 tunics
 Fibrous – dense avascular tissue
 Sclera: white part that protects, shapes, and provides
attachment for eye muscles

 Cornea: buldges anteriorly and allows light into eye
 Vascular
 Choroid – highly vascular & provides nutrition
 Ciliary Body – encircles lense and keeps it in place
 Iris – contains pupil and changes in shape due to light
 Sensory – contains the retina, which are photoreceptors of

rods & cones
 Optic Disc (blind spot) – Where optic nerve exits eye
 Rods – dim light
 Cones – bright light and color
 Filled with humors to maintain shape

 Vitreous humor – in posterior
 Aqueous humor – in anterior (if undrained causes glaucoma)
 Physiology
 Wavelength & Color
 Eyes respond to visible light spectrum
 Progresses from red to violet
 Refraction & lenses

 Light travels in straight lines and blocked by nontrasnparent
objects
 Light reflects or bounces off a surface
 Reflection accounts for most of light reaching our eyes; as light

changes mediums it can bend or refract.
 Focus
 Your lens refracts the light to your focal point which projects on
your retina
 Images are upside down & reversed
 Myopia – nearsighted
 Hyperopia – farsighted
 Astigmatism – unequal curvature of lens leading to blur

 Photoreception
 Photoreceptors are modified neurons
 Outer segment connected to inner, inner connects to cell body

which has synaptic endings.
 Rods
 Sensitive to low light, best at night
 Cones
 Require high light, provides color
EAR: HEARING & BALANCE
 Structure – three areas: Outer, middle, & inner ear
 Outer Ear
 Auricle or Pinna: ear composed of elastic cartilage & skin to
direct sound waves to external auditory canal
 External auditory meatus: Short curved tube from auricle to
eardrum
 Lined with skin, sebaceous glands, & ceruminous glands
(secrete earwax)
 Tympanic membrane ( ear drum ) boundary between outer &
middle ear
 Middle Ear (tympanic cavity)
 Small air filled mucus lined cavity
 Between eardrum & bony wall with two openings oval (vestibular) & round (cochlear)
window
 Contains pharyngotympanic (auditory tube) running from middle ear to nasopharynx &
helps equalize pressure
 Otitis Media – middle ear inflammation
 Inner Ear
 Behind eye socket & contains receptor information
 2 Major divisions
 Bony (osseous ) labyrinth
 Vestibule – contains saccule and utricle which have equilibrium receptors that respond
to gravity & changes of head position
 Cochlea – contains the organ of corti which is the sensory organ for hearing
 Semicircular Canals – respond to movement of head
 Membranous Labyrinth
 Series of sacs and ducts containing endolymph fluid to help conduct sound vibrations.
 Sound & Mechanisms of Hearing
 Sound – a disturbance of pressure
 Frequency – measurement of offurrences of a repeated event
per unit of time
 Distance between two crests is a wavelength
 Frequency is expressed in hertz
 Range for humans is 20-20,000 Hz
 Amplitude or height of wave is related to intensity
 Loudness is measured in decibles
 We can hear from .1 dB to over 120 dB
 Threshold for pain is 130 dB
 Hearing loss occurs with exposure to 90 dB
 Noisy restaurant is 70 dB, normal talking is 50 dB
 A rock concert is 120 dB. You do the math.
 Transmission
 Sound waves move through the air, membranes, bones, fluids
to reach receptor cells in the organ of corti.
 Vibrations excite hair cells which send messages to cochlear
nerve and brings the impulses to the brain for processing
 Imbalances of Hearing
 Deafness – any hearing loss
 Conduction deafness
 When something hampers sound conduction to fluids of
inner ear
 Ruptures, perforated eardrum can cause problems
 Sensorinerual
 Damage to neural structures of cochlear hair cells
 Can be partial or complete & generally there is gradual loss
of hearing throughout life

 Cells can be damaged to extremely loud noises or
prolonged exposure
 Can be fixed with cochlear implants
 Tinnitus
 Ringing of ear
 Symptom of pathology and not disease
st
 1 symptom of cochlear nerve degeneration
 Can be from inflammation or medication or trauma

 Meniere’s Syndrom
 Affects semicircular & cochlear canals
 Causes vertigo, nausea, vomitting
 Standing erect is near impossible
 Caused by excess fluid, rupture or infection
 Mild cases can be cleared with anti motion drugs, sometimes
surgery
 Equilibrium & Orientation
 Responds to head movement without awareness
 Receptors of inner ear are divided into two parts
 Static
 Sensory receptors for static are the maculae
 Found in saccules and utricle
 Monitor position of head in space, control posture
 Dynamic
 Receptor for dynamic are the crista ampullaris
 Excited by head movement but major stimuli are rotatory
 These areas are at work when twirling or feeling ill on a boat

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THE SPECIAL

 Bitter in the back

 Located on roof of nasal cavity

 Contain olfactory receptor cells with columnar supporting

 Bind to protein receptors which open ion channels that send

 Eyelashes trigger blinking

 Lens : Divides eye into anterior and

attachment for eye muscles

 Choroid – highly vascular & provides nutrition

 Ciliary Body – encircles lense and keeps it in place

 Iris – contains pupil and changes in shape due to light

 Sensory – contains the retina, which are photoreceptors of

 Rods – dim light

 Cones – bright light and color

 Filled with humors to maintain shape

 Refraction & lenses

 Reflection accounts for most of light reaching our eyes; as light

 Astigmatism – unequal curvature of lens leading to blur

 Outer segment connected to inner, inner connects to cell body

 Threshold for pain is 130 dB

 Hearing loss occurs with exposure to 90 dB

 Noisy restaurant is 70 dB, normal talking is 50 dB

 A rock concert is 120 dB. You do the math.

 Damage to neural structures of cochlear hair cells

 Can be partial or complete & generally there is gradual loss

of hearing throughout life

 Can be from inflammation or medication or trauma

 Standing erect is near impossible

 Caused by excess fluid, rupture or infection

 Mild cases can be cleared with anti motion drugs, sometimes

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