Module 9

The Special
Senses

Cochlea
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 Special Senses
• Have highly localized receptors that provide
specific information about the environment
• Five special senses
– Smell
• Interaction of chemicals with sensory receptors
– Taste
• Interaction of chemicals with sensory receptors
– Sight
• Interaction of light with sensory receptors
– Hearing
• Interaction of mechanical stimulation with sensory receptors
– Balance
• Interaction of mechanical stimulation with sensory receptors
 Olfaction
• Sense of Smell
• Response to airborne molecules, called
odorants, entering the nasal cavity
• At least 7 (perhaps 50) primary odors exist
– Camphoraceous (e.g., moth balls)
– Musky
– Floral
– Pepperminty
– Ethereal (e.g., fresh pears)
– Pungent
– Putrid
• Olfactory neurons have very low thresholds and
accommodate rapidly
 Olfactory Epithelium and Bulb
• Olfactory neurons in the
olfactory epithelium are
bipolar neurons
– Distal ends have olfactory hairs
• Olfactory hairs have
receptors that respond to
dissolved substances
– Approximately 1000 different
odorant receptors
• Receptors activate G
proteins, which results in ion
channels opening and
depolarization
Fig.
13.1
 Neuronal Pathways for Olfaction
• Axons from the olfactory neurons extend
as olfactory nerves to the olfactory bulb,
where they synapse with interneurons
• Axons from interneurons form the olfactory
tracts, which connect to the olfactory
cortex
• Olfactory bulbs and cortex accommodate
to odors
 Taste
• Sensory structures that detect taste stimuli are
taste buds
• Most taste buds are located in the epithelium of
papillae
• Taste buds are found on the
– Tongue
– Palate
– Lips
– Throat
• There are four types of papillae
– Three contain taste buds
– The fourth and most numerous
has no taste buds, but gives the
tongue its roughness
Fig. 13.2
 Histology of Taste Buds
• Taste buds consist of
– Taste cells (~50)
• Have taste hairs that
extend into taste pores
– Basilar cells
– Supporting cells

Fig. 13.2
 Function of Taste
• Receptors on the hairs detect dissolved
substances
• Five basic types of taste exist:
– Salty
• Sodium ions
– Sour
• Acids
– Sweet
• Sugars, some other carbohydrates, and some proteins
– Bitter
• Alkaloids (bases)
– Umami
• Elicited by the amino acid glutamate and related compounds
 Function of Taste
• All taste buds can sense the five primary tastes,
but tend to be most sensitive to one
– Sensitivity to bitter substances is the highest
(Poisons)
• Taste is strongly influenced by olfactory
sensations
– Nasal congestion can dampen the taste sensation
• Tongue can detect other stimuli besides taste
– Temperature
– Texture
 Neuronal Pathways for Taste
• The facial nerve carries taste sensations
from the anterior two-thirds of the tongue
• The glossopharyngeal nerve carries taste
sensations from the posterior one-third of
the tongue
• The vagus nerve carries taste sensations
from the epiglottis
• The neural pathways for taste extend from
the medulla oblongata to the thalamus and
to the cerebral cortex
 Visual System
• Consists of
– Eye
• eyeball
• optic nerve
– Accessory Structures
• eyebrows, eyelids, conjunctiva, lacrimal apparatus,
and extrinsic eye muscles
– Sensory Neurons
 Accessory Structures
• Eyebrows
– Prevent perspiration from entering the eyes and help shade the
eyes
• Eyelids
– Consist of five tissue layers
– Protect the eyes from foreign objects
– Help lubricate the eyes by spreading tears over their surface
• Lubricating glands associated with the eyelids
– Meibomian glands and sebaceous glands
– Ciliary glands lie between the hair follicles
• Eyelashes
– Project from the free margin of each eyelid
– Initiate reflex blinking
• Conjunctiva
– Covers the inner eyelid and the anterior part of the eye
Fig. 13.3
Fig. 13.4
 Accessory Structures
• Lacrimal Apparatus
– Consists of the lacrimal gland, lacrimal
canaliculi, and a nasolacrimal duct
– Lacrimal glands secrete tears
• Tears
– Contain mostly water, with some salts, mucus, and
lysozyme
– Enter the eye via superolateral excretory ducts
– Exit the eye medially via the lacrimal canaliculi
– Drain into the nasolacrimal duct
Fig. 13.5
 Accessory Structures
• Extrinsic Eye Muscles
– Six strap-like muscles
• Enable the eye to follow moving objects
• Maintain the shape of the eyeball
– Four rectus muscles originate from the
annular ring
– Two oblique muscles move the eye in the
vertical plane
Fig. 13.6
Tab.
13.1
 Anatomy of the Eye
• A slightly irregular hollow sphere with anterior and
posterior poles
• The eyeball is composed of three layers
– Fibrous layer
• Sclera
• Cornea
– Vascular layer
• Choroid
• Ciliary body
• Iris
– Nervous layer
• Retina
• The internal cavity is filled with fluids called humors
Fig. 13.7
 Fibrous Layer
• Sclera
– Posterior 4/5ths of the eye
– White connective tissue that maintains the
shape of the eyeball
– Provides a site for muscle attachment
• Cornea
– Anterior 1/5th of the eye
– Transparent and refracts light that enters the
eye
 Vascular Layer
• Choroid
– A vascular network
– Many melanin-containing pigment cells
– Appears black in color
– Prevents the reflection of light inside the eye
• Ciliary body
– Ciliary ring
• A thickened ring of tissue surrounding the lens
• Composed of smooth muscle bundles (ciliary muscles)
• Anchors the suspensory ligament that holds the lens in place
• Changes the shape of the lens
– Ciliary process
• produces aqueous humor
 Vascular Layer
• Iris
– Smooth muscle regulated by the autonomic nervous
system
• Sphincter pupillae
– Close vision and bright light: pupils constrict
• Dilator pupillae
– Distant vision and dim light: pupils dilate
• Changes in emotional state: pupils dilate when the subject
matter is appealing or requires problem-solving skills
– Controls the amount of light entering the pupil
– Color is determined by the amount of melanin present
• Large amounts of melanin: brown or black
• Less melanin: light brown, green, or grey
• Even less melanin: blue
Fig. 13.8
 Nervous Layer
• Retina
– The inner layer of the eyeball
– Has over 126 million photoreceptor cells, which
respond to light
• Macula (fovea centralis)
– Area of greatest sensitivity to light
– Highest concentration of photoreceptor cells
• Optic disc
– Location through which nerves exit and blood vessels
enter the eye
– No photoreceptor cells
– The “blind spot” of the eye
Fig. 13.9
 Chambers of the Eye
• Composed of three chambers
– Anterior chamber
• Between the cornea and the iris
– Posterior chamber
• Between the iris and the lens
– Viterous chamber
• Much larger then the other two chambers
• Posterior to the lens
 Chambers of the Eye
• Aqueous Humor
– Fills the anterior and posterior chambers
– Supports, nourishes, and removes wastes for the
cornea, which has no blood vessels
– Produced by the ciliary processes as a blood filtrate
– Returned to the circulation through the scleral venous
sinus
• Vitreous Humor
– Fills the vitreous chamber
– Contributes to intraocular pressure
– Helps maintain the shape of the eyeball
– Holds the lens and retina in place
– Functions in the refraction of light in the eye
 Lens
• A biconvex, transparent, flexible,
avascular structure that:
– Allows precise focusing of light onto the retina
– Is composed of epithelium and lens fibers
• Lens epithelium: anterior cells that differentiate
into lens fibers
• Lens fibers: cells filled with the transparent protein
crystallin
• With age, the lens becomes more compact
and dense and loses its elasticity
 Functions of the Complete Eye
• Properties of Light
– Electromagnetic spectrum
• All energy waves from short gamma rays to long radio waves
– Visible spectrum
• Portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that can be detected
by the human eye
– Refraction
• Bending of light
• Light striking a concave surface refracts outward
(divergence)
• Light striking a convex surface refracts inward (convergence)
• Converging light rays meet at the focal point and are said to
be focused
Page
384
 Fig.
13.10
 Functions of the Complete Eye
• Focusing system of the Eye (light
refracting)
– Cornea
• Responsible for most of the convergence
– Aqueous humor
– Lens
• Adjusts the convergence by changing shape
– Vitreous humor
 Functions of the Complete Eye
• Distant and Near Vision
– Distant vision: looking at objects 20 feet or more from
the eye
– Near vision: looking at objects less than 20 feet from
the eye
– Relaxation of the ciliary muscles causes the lens to
flatten, producing the emmetropic eye
• Normal resting condition of the lens
– Far point of vision
• Point at which the lens does not have to thicken for focusing
to occur
• Normally 20 feet or more from the eye
– Near point of vision
• Closest point an object can come to the eye and still be
focused
 Fig.
13.11
 Functions of the Complete Eye
• When an object is less than 20 feet from the
eye, the image falling on the retina is no longer
in focus
• Three events must occur to bring the image into
focus
1. Accommodation by the lens
• Contraction of the ciliary muscles causes the lens to become
more spherical
• Change in the lens shape enables the eye to focus on
objects that are less than 20 feet away
2. Constriction of the Pupil
• Increases the depth of focus
3. Convergence of the eyes
• Medial rotation of the eyes
 Structure and Function of the Retina

• Pigmented layer of the

retina provides a black
backdrop for increasing
visual acuity
• Rods and cones synapse
with bipolar cells
• Bipolar cells synapse with
ganglion cells, which form
the optic nerve

Fig. 13.12
 Fig.
13.12
 Structure and Function of the Retina

• Rods
– Responsible for non-color vision and vision in
low illumination (night vision)
– Rod-shaped photoreceptive part of the rods
contains about 700 double-layered
membranous discs
– Discs contain rhodopsin
• A purple pigment consisting of the protein opsin
covalently bound to a yellow photosensitive
pigment called retinal (derived from Vit. A)
 Fig.
13.13
 Structure and Function of the Retina

• Exposure to light activates rhodopsin

– Rhodopsin is split by light into retinal and
opsin, eventually resulting in an action
potential
– Light adaptation is caused by a reduction of
rhodopsin
– Dark adaptation is caused by rhodopsin
production
 Fig.
13.14
 Structure and Function of the Retina

• Cones
– Responsible for color vision and visual acuity
– Three types, each with a different type of
iodopsin photopigment
• Pigments are most sensitive to blue, red, and
green light
– Perception of many colors results from mixing
the ratio of the different types of cones that
are active at a given moment
 Fig.
13.15
 Structure and Function of the Retina

• Most visual images are focused on the fovea

centralis and macula
– Fovea centralis has a very high concentration of
cones
– In the remaining macula there are more cones than
rods
– Most rods are in the periphery of the retina
• Bipolar and ganglion cells in the retina can
modify information sent to the brain
• Interneurons in the inner layers of the retina
enhance contrast between the edges of objects
 Neuronal Pathways for Vision

• Ganglion cell axons form the optic nerve,

optic chiasm, and optic tracts
– Extend to the thalamus and synapse
– Then the neurons form the optic radiations
that project to the visual cortex
• Depth perception is the ability to judge
relative distances of an object from the
eyes and is a property of binocular vision
– Binocular vision results because a slightly
different image is seen by each eye
 Fig.
13.16a
 Fig.
13.16bc
 Fig.
13.17
 Fig.
13.18
 Hearing and Balance
• Three parts of the ear are
– External ear
• Extends from the outside of the head to the tympanic
membrane
– Middle ear
• Air-filled chamber medial to the tympanic membrane
– Inner ear
• Set of fluid-filled chambers medial to the middle ear
• The external and middle ear are involved with
hearing
• The inner ear functions in both hearing and
equilibrium
 Fig.
13.19
 Auditory Structures and Their Functions

• External Ear
– Auricle
• Fleshy part of the external ear
– External acoustic meatus
• Passageway that leads to the tympanic membrane
• Lined with hairs and ceruminous glands
– Ceruminous glands produce cerumen (earwax)
– Tympanic membrane (eardrum)
• Thin connective tissue membrane that vibrates in response
to sound
• Transfers sound energy to the middle ear ossicles
• Boundary between outer and middle ears
 Auditory Structures and Their Functions

• Middle Ear
– A small, air-filled, mucosa-lined cavity
• Flanked laterally by the eardrum
• Flanked medially by the oval and round windows
– Contains three small bones: the malleus, incus, and
stapes
• Transmit vibratory motion of the eardrum to the oval window
• Dampened by the tensor tympani and stapedius muscles
– Auditory tube (pharyngotympanic or eustachian tube)
• Connects the middle ear to the pharynx
• Equalizes pressure in the middle ear cavity with the external
air pressure
 Fig.
13.20
 Auditory Structures and Their Functions

• Inner Ear
– Bony labyrinth
• Interconnecting, fluid-filled tunnels and chambers within the
temporal bone
– Contains
• Vestibule and semicircular canals: primarily involved in
balance
• Cochlea: involved in hearing
– Membranous labyrinth
• Series of membranous sacs within the bony labyrinth
• Filled with a potassium-rich fluid called endolymph
– Space between the bony labyrinth and membranous
labyrinth is filled with perilymph
 Fig.
13.21
 Auditory Structures and Their Functions

• Cochlea
– Spiral-shaped canal within the temporal bone
– Divided into three compartments by the
vestibular and basilar membranes
• Scala vestibuli and scala tympani contain
perilymph
• Cochlear duct contains endolymph and the spiral
organ
– Spiral organ consists of inner hair cells and outer hair
cells, which attach to the tectorial membrane
– Hair cells have hairlike projections at their apical ends,
which are very long microvilli called stereocilia
 Fig.
13.22
 Fig.
13.23
 Fig.
13.24
 Auditory Function
• Pitch is determined by the frequency of
sound waves
• Volume is determined by the amplitude of
sound waves
• Timbre is the resonant quality (overtones)
of sound
 Fig.
13.25
 Auditory Function
• Hearing involves
– Sound waves funneled by the auricle down the
external acoustic meatus cause the tympanic
membrane to vibrate
– Tympanic membrane vibrations pass along the
auditory ossicles to the oval window of the inner ear
– Movement of the stapes in the oval window causes
the perilymph, vestibular membrane, and endolymph
to vibrate and produces movement of the basilar
membrane
– Movement of the basilar membrane causes bending
of the stereocilia of inner hair cells in the spiral organ
 Auditory Function
• Hearing involves (cont.)
– Bending of the stereocilia pulls on gating
springs and opens K+ channels
– K+ ions enter the hair cell and result in
depolarization of the cell
– Depolarization causes the release of
glutamate, generating action potentials in the
sensory neurons associated with hair cells
– The round window dissipates sound waves
and protects the inner ear from pressure
buildup
 Fig.
13.26
 Fig.
13.27
 Neuronal Pathways for Hearing
• Axons from the vestibulocochlear nerve synapse
in the medulla
• Neurons from the medulla project axons to the
inferior colliculi, where they synapse
• Neurons from this point project to the thalamus
and synapse
• Thalamic neurons extend to the auditory cortex
• Efferent neurons project to cranial nerve nuclei
responsible for controlling muscles that dampen
sound in the middle ear
 Static Balance
• Evaluates the position of the head relative
to gravity and detects linear acceleration
and deceleration
• Vestibule contains
– The utricle and saccule in the inner ear
• Contain maculae made of hair cells
• Hairs are embedded in an otolithic membrane
– Consists of a gelatinous mass and crystals called otoliths
– Moves in response to gravity
 Fig.
13.28
 Fig.
13.29
 Dynamic Balance
• Evaluates movements of the head
• Semicircular Canals
– Three semicircular canals at right angles to
one another are present in the inner ear
– The ampulla of each semicircular canal
contains the crista ampullaris
• Has hair cells with hairs embedded in a gelatinous
mass, the cupula
– When the head moves, endolymph within the
semicircular canals moves the cupula
 Fig.
13.30
 Fig.
13.31
Neuronal Pathways for Balance
• Axons from the maculae and the cristae
ampullares extend to the vestibular
nucleus of the medulla
• Fibers from the medulla run to the spinal
cord, cerebellum, cortex, and nuclei that
control the extrinsic eye muscles
• Balance also depends on proprioception
and visual input