The Human Senses

Junior Science

Lesson Objectives
Recall five sense organs in the human (eyes, ears, nose, skin, and tongue) Understand how these enable humans to gather information from their surroundings Know the main parts of the Eye and their functions.

Smell Hear

Touch

Taste

Sight

The Human Senses

Humans have 5 senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. The senses are based on receptor cells or groups of receptor cells called sense organs. Receptors respond to stimuli and send nerve impulses along sensory neurons. The brain interprets the nerve impulse and, thus, we perceive the impulse as one of our senses.

The Human Eye

Did you Know.
Impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. The eyeball of a human weighs approximately 28 grams. The eye of a human can distinguish 500 shades of the grey. The cornea is the only living tissue in the human body that does not contain any blood vessels. The most common injury caused by cosmetics is to the eye by a mascara wand.

Structure of the Eye

Parts of the Eye

The cornea is the clear, front window of the eye. It is
transparent; this allows light to enter the eyeball. The iris is the coloured part of the eye. It is a membrane that sits between the cornea and the lens. The pupil is the round opening in the centre of the iris. Light passes through the pupil to the retina The lens is responsible for focusing light onto the retina. It is able to change its thickness, and thus can change the focus The ciliary muslces change the shape of the lens, and allows you to focus light on your retina to be able to see. The optic nerve is composed of over one million nerve fibres and transmits bio-electrical information from the retina to the brain.

The Pupil

The size of the pupil is controlled by the Iris. The Iris controls the amount of light entering the eye

Ciliary Muscle Action

The Retina
The Retina contains the light receptors called RODS and colour receptors called CONES The BLIND SPOT is the area of the retina where the optical nerve leaves the eye. Directly behind the centre of the lens is the YELLOW SPOT or FOVEA. The FOVEA contains tightly packed cones and is the area which provides the most accurate vision.

RODS
Thin rod shaped receptors, with approximately 120 million in each eye. Located on the side of the retina they are sensitive to dim light and are the receptors for night vision. They cannot determine colour.

CONES
Thin cone shaped receptors with approximately 6 million in each eye. Located around the fovea. Sensitive to bright light and responsible for colour vision There are three type of cones Red, Green and Blue

Rods and Cones

How we See
Light entering the eye is refracted by the Cornea, Aqueous humour, lens and vitreous humour. Rays are focused onto the retina. An upside down, back to front image is formed. Nerve impulses are send to the brain via the optic nerve where the image is corrected.

Demodex
The mite Demodex lives around hair follicles. The preferred sites are facial skin, forehead, cheeks, eyelashes and external ear channels. They vary in size from 0.1 mm to 0.4 mm. They can slowly move on the skin especially during the night.

Smell and Taste Facts

Smell and taste involves the detection of
water soluble chemicals in the environment. The flavours of many foods are actually a combination of both sensations. The sense of smell is about 1,000 times more sensitive than that of taste.

Sense of Taste
The Tongue
Our Sense of taste is the weakest of the five senses Our taste buds can recognize four basic kinds of tastes: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. The salty/sweet taste buds are located near the front of your tongue. The sour taste buds line the sides of your tongue; The bitter taste buds are found at the very back of your tongue.

The Tongue the Organ of Taste

Sense of Smell
The Nose
When we breathe in through our nostrils tiny hairs called Cilia line the nasal cavity filter out dust and dirt particles Air passes through a thick layer of mucous to the olfactory bulb. Here smells are recognized because each smell molecule fits into a nerve cell like a lock and key. Then the cells send signals along your olfactory nerve to the brain where they are interpreted as various scents - sweet smelling flowers or moldy cheese.

The Nose the Organ of Smell

Sense of Touch
The Skin
Our skin contains receptors sensitive to heat, cold, pain and touch. We have more pain nerve endings than any other type. The least sensitive part of our body is the middle of the back. The most sensitive areas of the body is the hands, lips, face, neck, tongue, fingertips and feet. Shivering is a way the body has of trying to get warmer. There are about 100 touch receptors in each fingertip.

The Skin Receptors

Summary
Humans have 5 senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. The senses are based on receptor cells or groups of receptor cells called sense organs eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. Receptors respond to stimuli and send nerve impulses along sensory neurons. The brain interprets the nerve impulse and, thus, we perceive the impulse as one of our senses.