Receptor: generator potential, properties and

transduction
 prerequisites
• Electricity?
 Receptor
• A specialized cell/a distal portion of a
neuron that responds to a specific sensory
modality, such as touch, pressure, cold, light,
or sound, & converts it to an electrical signal
(generator or receptor potential).
• A specific molecule or cluster of molecules
that recognizes & binds a particular ligand.
 Graded Potentials
A. Subthreshold electrical stimuli that do not
produce a true action potential but do
generate electrical signals
B. Stimuli may be electrical, chemical, or
mechanical
C. Stimuli produce 2 types of physiochemical
disturbances
 Graded Potentials
1. Local, graded, non propagated potentials
called receptor or generator potentials, synaptic
potentials or electrotonic potentials
2. Action potentials (complete depolarization) or
nerve impulses which are propagated down the
axon to cause the release of neurotransmitters
 Graded Potentials Local Response
A. Subthreshold response
B. Characteristics of graded potentials
1. It is Local - changes in membrane
potential are confined to relatively small
regions of the plasma membrane
2. It is graded - Refers to the magnitude of
the potential change and that the signal can be
reinforced.
Graded Potentials
Graded Potentials
 Graded Potentials Local Response

A. Magnitude can vary (is graded) with the

magnitude of the stimulus
B. Graded events can be hypopolarizing
(depolarizing - decrease in potential difference) or
hyperpolarizing
 Graded Potentials Local Response

3. Graded potentials are conducted with decrement.

(conduction magnitude falls off further you get
from the point of origin)
 Graded Potentials Local Response

A. Charge is lost across the membrane because of

“leaky” channels & the magnitude of the potential
decreases with distance from the site of origin
(charge density falls).
B. Graded potentials & the local current they
generate can function as signals over very short
distances
C. Graded potentials die out in 1 - 2 mm of the
origin
 Graded Potentials
1. Characteristics of Graded Potentials
a. Only type of communication by some
neurons
b. Play an important role in the initiation and
integration of long distance signals by
neurons & other cells
 Graded potential

• It has different names depending on which type

of stimulus causes them & where they occur
• When it occurs in the dendrites or cell body of a
neuron in response to a neurotransmitter, it is
called a postsynaptic potential.
• Graded potentials that occur in sensory receptors
& sensory neurons are termed receptor potentials
& generator potentials
 Graded Potentials
2. Specific types
a. Receptor (Generator) potentials
1) Sensory receptors respond to stimuli from
mechanoreceptors, thermoreceptors, nociceptors
(pain), chemoreceptors, and electromagnetic
receptors (vision)
-Graded potential from stimuli is called receptor
potential
- If graded potential reached threshold an action
potential is generated and sensory information is
sent to the spinal cord and brain
 Graded Potentials
Pacemaker potential - heart
1) Specialized cells in the cardiac pacemaker region
(SA node) have “leaky” ion channels graded
potentials can potentially induce a true cardiac action
potential
2) Graded potential is responsible for cardiac
automaticity
 Graded Potentials
Postsynaptic membrane potentials
1) Graded potentials that develop on the postsynaptic
membrane during synaptic transmission (stimuli from
other nerves - can be stimulatory or inhibitory)
2) If graded potentials reach threshold action
potential develops
 Graded Potentials
End Plate Potential (EPP)
 Post synaptic graded potential that develops at the
neuromuscular junction (always stimulatory &
always reach threshold if generated by an AP in
the innervating α motor neuron).
 Postsynaptic membrane potentials are important
in AP generation in nerve to nerve and nerve to
muscle communication.
 Differences
Graded Potential Action potential
Amplitude varies with conditions All-or-none. Once membrane is
of initiating events depolarized to threshold,
amplitude is independent of
initiating event
Can be summed Cannot be summed

Has no threshold Has a threshold that is usually

about 15 mV depolarized relative
to the resting potential
Has no refractory period Has a refractory period
Is conducted decrementally; that Is conducted without decrement;
is, amplitude decreases with the depolarization is amplified to
distance a constant value at each point
along the membrane
 Differences
Graded Potential Action potential
Duration varies with initiating Duration constant for a given cell
conditions type under constant conditions
Can be a depolarization or a Is only a depolarization
hyperpolarization
Initiated by environmental Initiated by a graded
stimulus (receptor), by potential
neurotransmitter (synapse),
or spontaneously
Mechanism depends on Mechanism depends on
ligand-sensitive channels or voltage-gated channels
other chemical or physical
changes
• Potential= potential difference: The voltage
difference between two points.
• Membrane potential= transmembrane potential:
The voltage difference between the inside and
outside of a cell.
• Equilibrium potential: The voltage difference
across a membrane that produces a flux of a given
ion species that is equal but opposite to the flux due
to the concentration gradient of that same ion
species.
• Resting membrane potential= resting potential:
The steady transmembrane potential of a cell that is
not producing an electric signal.
• Graded potential: A potential change of variable
amplitude & duration that is conducted
decrementally; it has no threshold or refractory
period.
• Action potential: A brief all-or-none depolarization
of the membrane, reversing polarity in neurons; it
has a threshold & refractory period & is conducted
without decrement.
• Synaptic potential: A graded potential change
produced in the postsynaptic neuron in response to
the release of a neurotransmitter by a presynaptic
terminal; it may be depolarizing (EPSP) or
hyperpolarizing (IPSP).
• Receptor potential: A graded potential
produced at the peripheral endings of afferent
neurons (or in separate receptor cells) in
response to a stimulus.
• Pacemaker potential: A spontaneously
occurring graded potential change that occurs
in certain specialized cells.
• Threshold potential: The membrane potential
at which an action potential is initiated.