Sensory Physiology

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 Sensory Receptors
• Sensory receptors are specialized cells that generate graded
potentials called receptor potentials in response to a stimulus.

• There are five major divisions of these sensory receptors based

on stimuli that they respond to:
1. Mechanoreceptors
2. Thermoreceptors
3. Photoreceptors
4. Chemoreceptors
5. Nociceptors.

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Types of Sensory Receptors

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The Receptor Potential

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 Primary Sensory Coding
• Coding is the conversion of a stimulus
into a signal that is conveyed to the
central nervous system.

• Information is conveyed by both the

frequency and the amplitude of the
resulting signals.

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Stimulus Duration: Rapid vs. Slow Adaptation

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 Stimulus Type
• Also known as stimulus modality.

• Examples: temperature, pressure, sound,

light…

• There is a specialized receptor for each.

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Stimulus Intensity

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Stimulus Location

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Overlapping Receptive Fields

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 Lateral Inhibition
• Lateral inhibition enables the localization of a stimulus site for
some sensory systems.

• In lateral inhibition, information from afferent neurons whose

receptors are at the edge of a stimulus is strongly inhibited
compared to information from the stimulus’ center.

• Lateral inhibition enhances the contrast between the center

and periphery of a stimulated region, thereby increasing the
brain’s ability to localize a sensory input.

• Exact localization is possible because lateral inhibition

removes the information from the peripheral regions.

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 Central Control of Afferent Information
• Sensory signals are subject to extensive modification before they
reach higher levels of the central nervous system.

• Modification can come from inhibition from collaterals from other

ascending neurons (e.g., lateral inhibition), pathways descending
from higher centers in the brain, by synapses on the axon
terminals of the primary afferent neurons (an example of
presynaptic inhibition) or indirectly via interneurons that affect
other neurons in the sensory pathways.

• For example, in the pain pathways, the afferent input is

continuously inhibited to some degree. This allows either
removing the inhibition (allowing a greater degree of signal
transmission) or increasing the inhibition (blocking the signal
more completely).
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Central Control of Afferent Information

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 Neural Pathways in Sensory Systems
• The afferent sensory is the beginning of a chain of
three or more neurons that form an ascending
pathway to the central nervous system.

• There are specific and nonspecific pathways to

transmit information.

• Processing of afferent information does not end in the

primary cortical receiving areas, but continues from
these areas to association areas in the cerebral cortex
where complex integration occurs.
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Sensory Areas of the Cortex

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