Sensory Channel

Transduction: the process of converting physical energy into nervous

system activity (electrical voltage)
Receptor Potential : electrical voltage
Generator potential electrical event that triggers nerve impulses
Afferent Codes: The firing patterns that correspond to events in the
environment
 Vision

Vison start with electromagnetic radiation (electric charges

moving through space at approx. 300 million meter per
second)
Have wave like properties, hence the term electromagnetic
waves
Wavelength- peak of one wave to the peak of the next wave
Electromagnetic spectrum: the entire range of wavelength is
called electromagnetic spectrum
Only small portion of electromagnetic spectrum is visible
(visible spectrum)
 Structure of the Eye
Light enters the eye by travelling through the
cornea then in to the pupil. To lens, the interior of
the eyeball to strike the rods and cones of the
retina
Transduction occurs in rods and cones cells
Nerve impulse are then generated in certain other
cells of the retina (ganglion cells)
Impulses travel to the brain along the optic nerve
Their pattern signals a visual event in the
environment
Cornea and lens automatically adjusted the
amount of light striking photosensitive rods and
cones by bending or refraction of rays of light
 Structure of the Eye
Cornea did most of the bending or refraction
The lens change the shape of the light and add
corneal refraction to bring the light from near
object to sharp focus one the retina
(accommodation)
Retina is a complex sheet of cells and fibers at the
back of the eyeball
rods and cones are light sensitive elements of
the retina where transduction process begins
Human eye contains 120 million rods and 6 million
cones
No rods and cones are in the blind spot – no
vision
 Retina and Seeing
Blind spot: optic nerve leave and where blood vessels go
in and out of retina (optic disc)
Cones are most abundant in fovea but no rods in this
region
Rods are found abundantly at the back of the eyeball
Fovea is the region we use in looking at object we want
to see more clearly
Visual acuity or sharpness is greater at fovea (cones)

Bright light ot day light

Cones
Duplicity theory of vision Color vision

Rods Dim light

 Retina and Seeing
Transduction in Vision
Rods and cones contain photosensitive pigments
When visible spectrum strike these pigments some of the light
energy are absorbed by the pigment
Chemical changes occur and initiate the chain of events involved
in seeing
Rods and cones have different photochemical pigment
Absorption of light energy causes the pigment molecule to change
their configuration or shape and the process create electrical
energy
Through a series of further electrical steps (horizontal, bipolar,
and amacrine), electrical activity is passed from rods and cones to
the ganglion
 Visual Pathway in the Brain
Ganglion cells have long fibers or axon
The pattern of this nerve fibers carry information to the brain
Reach thalamus and made synapses with lateral geniculate body
Then lateral geniculate cells carry nerve impulses to the primary visual sensory
areas
Visual experience can have hue (color), brightness, and form
Hue: Determine by wavelength
short wave length blue end
long wave: length red end
Saturation: the degree to which color is not diluted by whiteness
Brightness: Determined by amplitude of wave
Higher wave: brighter the light appear
Lower wave: dimmer the light appear
Form: Visual sensation of form, or shape, depend upon
differences in the amounts of energy focused on different parts
of the retina
 Color Vision

Human eye is capable of distinguishing more than 7 million colors

Two process are involved in color vision
Trichromatic theory of color vision: there are three kinds of cones
in the retina, each of which responds primarily to a specific range
of wavelength
Opponent- process theory of color vision : receptor cells for color
are linked in pair and working opposite to each other
 Sound : Its Physical Aspect
Sound is vibrations of molecules around us
FREQUENCY/pitch: is the number of wave
cycles that occur in a second
Low frequency few wave per second
Lowest frequency human can hear is 20 cycle
per second
Human can detect frequency as high as 20,
000 per second
Amplitude: feature of wave pattern that allow
us to distinguish between loud and soft sound
Timbre: Richness in the tone of sound
 Hearing

OUTER EAR
Sound arrive at the outer ear in the form of wavelike
vibration
Pinna funnel the soundwave in to the auditory canal ,
tube like passage that leads to the eardrum/ tympanic
membrane
Eardrum vibrates when sound wave hit it
The more intense the sound the more eardrum
vibrates
 Hearing

MIDDLE EAR
Vibration are transfer to the middle ear
Tiny chamber containing hammer, anvil, and
stirrup (ossicles)
Act as lever, they not only transmit vibration
but also increase their strength
Stirrup causes the membrane covering the
inner ear to vibrate
 Hearing
INNER EAR
Sound move from oval window (the membrane)to cochlea
Cochlea: snail like structure filled with fluid that vibrate in
response to sound
Basilar membrane : a vibrating structure that runs through center
of the cochlea,
Divide cochlea into two chamber
BM has organ of corti which contains receptor cells called hair
cells
Hair cells bent up against a membrane causing it them to send a
neural message through the auditory nerve and into the brain
Louder sound stronger vibrations of the hair cells
 Theories of Hearing

Place theory (Helmholtz modified by Bekesy)- sensing high

frequency
Frequency theory (Rutherford, 1886)- explain low frequency
sound
Volley Principle: Frequencies from 400 Hz to 4000 Hz cause
the hair cells to fire in a volley pattern, or take turns in firing
 Types of Hearing Impairment

Conduction Hearing Impairment

Problems with outer or middle ear
Possible cause- damage to eardrum or damage in bones of middle ear
Causes can be treated
Nerve Hearing Impairment
Problem in the inner ear /auditory path way /cortical areas of brain
Major cause of permanent hearing loss
Cochlear implant aid in hearing
 Taste
Taste buds: specialized cells grouped together in little cluster that
are receptor for taste
Taste buds are located on top and side of tongue
Some at the back of mouth and throat
Papillae: bumps which are richly populated with taste buds
To stimulate taste buds substance must be in solutions
Taste sensitivity is not as keen as smell
People are more sensitive to acid and bitter substance
 Taste
Each taste bud has about 20 receptors
Taste is chemical sense as it work with molecules of food people
eat
Five basic taste qualities : salty, sour, bitter, sweet, and umami
Sixth taste oleogustus (taste of fatty acids in food)
T he efferent code for a particular taste consists of a pattern of
firing in the nerve fibers from taste buds
Taste information is sent to gustatory cortex
Food texture or mouth feel is sent to somatosensory cortex
 Smell
Olfaction/olfactory sense: Ability to smell odors
Outer part of nose collect sensory information and send it to the part
where they are transduces
Part of the olfactory that transduces odors is located at the top of the
nasal passages
Olfactory receptor cells is only an inch square but contains 10 million
olfactory receptors
Each olfactory receptor cells have about half a dozen of cilia (little hair)
Olfactory receptors are replaced in about 5-8 weeks
OR are more than 5 types and at least 1000 of them
Olfactory information are send to olfactory bulbs
 Skin Senses
Four skin senses: pressure or touch, cold, warmth, and pain
Skin is not uniformly sensitive
Spot for greatest sensitivity to touch, cold, warmth, and pain are
different
PRESSURE OR TOUCH
The sensation a person who is touched lightly on the skin report is
called either pressure or touch
The amount of physical pressure require to produce this experience
varies
Most sensitive: tip of tongue, fingers, hands
 Skin Senses
Less sensitive: arms, legs, trunk and callous
What elicits the experience? Weight of the object or bending of the
skin
Bending/ deforming of the skin
A gradient of pressure, not uniformly distributed pressure, is the
stimulus for touch experience
Receptors for pressure: Meissner corpuscle (hairless region of the
body), basket nerve ending (roots of the hair), free nerve ending
(found in areas where no receptors are found)
Pacinian corpuscles – deep pressure
 Skin Senses
COLD AND WARMTH
Experience of cold and warmth are elicited by gradient of skin
temperature
Cold spots and warm spots are found in different places
Free nerve ending physiologically different appears to signal the skin
temperature
Cold fibers: increase firing by cooling of skin
Warm fibers: increase firing by warming of skin
Afferent code: rates of firing in cold and warm fibers
 Skin Senses
PAIN (noxious stimulation)
Pain motivates multitude of behavior
Visceral Pain: Pain that are detected in the organs by receptors
Somatic Pain: Pain sensation in the skin, muscles, tendons, and joints
Somatic pain is a warning system and reminder system
Gate-Control Theory of Pain (Ronald Melzack & Partick Wall, 1965)
Pain Disorders:
1. Congenital analgesia and congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis
2. Phantom limb pain
Movement and Position of the Body

Kinesthesia- Awareness of body movement

Proprioception- “the awareness of where the body and body parts
are located in relation to each other in space, and to the ground”
Vestibular sense- ”the awareness of the balance, position, and
movement of the head and body through space in relation to
gravity’s pull”
Two kinds of vestibular organs
1. Otolith organ
2. Semicircular canals