Special Senses Notes
Chapter 10
10.1-10.3 (pg. 260-265)
1. What do sensory receptors do?
2. There are two types of sensory receptors. What are the somatic senses versus the special
senses?
3. The 5 special senses are:
4. There are 5 types of sensory receptors organized by their sensitivities:
Types of Receptors
Function
5. Define the four words below and describe how they relate to one another.
Sensation
Perception
Projection
Sensory
Adaptation
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6. General Senses (Big Picture):
What are they?
Where are they located?
7. Touch and Pressure Senses:
Sensation:
Free Nerve Endings
Location:
Looks like:
Sensation:
Tactile (Meissner’s
corpuscles)
Location:
Looks like:
Sensation:
Lamellated
(Pacinian)
corpuscles
Location:
Looks like:
8. Temperature Senses:
Two types of free nerve
endings that respond to
temperature:
Warm receptors respond to
what temperature?
Cold receptors respond to
what temperature?
What happens below or above
these temperatures?
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9. Pain Senses:
Where are the pain sensing
free nerve endings
distributed?
Where are they not located?
Why is sensing pain a good
thing?
What does visceral mean?
Explain the sentence:
“Pain receptors are the only
receptors in viscera whose
stimulation produces
sensations.”
What types of stimuli can
elicit pain?
Referred pain:
How does referred pain
relate to heart attacks?
________________ pain fibers:
2 Types of nerve fibers that
send impulse away from
pain receptors
Dual sensation of pain
arises from:
What part of the brain is
aware of pain 1st?
Then the cerebrum
interprets the pain,
determining…
What are some examples of
neurotransmitters that can
suppress pain receptors?
3
_________________ pain fibers:
Smell
Olfactory pathways are linked to emotional centers in the brain (limbic system in the
diencephalon), explaining why we have certain emotions when we smell certain odors.
Sensory cranial nerve
responsible for sense of
smell
Cranial nerve responsible
for taste
What type of specific
receptors are olfactory
and taste receptors?
Why?
Olfactory organ location
The olfactory nerve
pathway
Olfactory receptors cells 
 Limbic system (diencephalon)
How many olfactory
receptor cells do human
have? Dogs?
Why are almost half of
human olfactory genes
inactive?
What is anosmia?
What can cause anosmia?
Describe the olfactory receptor cells, including where they are located:
Describe how the olfactory receptor cells work to send signals of odor to the brain.
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 olfactory tracts
Taste
Define and describe each of the following terms:
Taste Bud
Papillae
Gustatory Cells
Taste Pore
Taste Hairs
5 types of Gustatory
cells are responsible
for 5 taste sensations:
Some foods can
stimulate what other
receptors (rather than
taste):
How are the taste
receptors distributed
on the tongue?
How does the sense of taste work?
Taste Pathway:
5
EAR
The ear is divided into the outer, middle, and inner ear. The outer ear functions only in ____________
while the inner ear functions in both __________________ and _______________________. The cranial nerve
involved in hearing and balance is _______________________________________.
Ear Structure
Function
Pinna (or called auricle)
External Acoustic Meatus
(auditory canal)
Ceruminous Glands
Tympanic Membrane (Eardrum)
Eustachian Tube (Auditory Tube)
Ossicles (malleus, incus, stapes)
Oval window
Cochlea
Organ of Corti (spiral organ)
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Other Notes
Endolymph
Hair Cells
Hearing
The last sense to leave our awareness as we fall asleep or receive anesthesia (or die) and is the first
to return as we awaken.
Mechanism of Hearing (how does it work?):
Hearing Pathway:
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Equilibrium
Static Equilibrium
Dynamic
Equilibrium
Vestibule
Hair cells in the
macula
Otoliths
Semicircular Canals
Crista ampullaris in
the ampulla
Hair cells
Cupula
Static Equilibrium
What is it?
What structures are involved?
How does it work?
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Dynamic Equilibrium
What is it?
What structures are involved?
How does it work?
EYE
The eye contains 70% of all the sensory receptors in the body! From the last unit, we learned about
3 motor nerves involved in moving the eye, as well as a major sensory nerve that carries visual
images to the brain to be interpreted. This sensory nerve is called:
The area of the brain that is most involved in vision:
Eye Structure
Function
Other Notes
Eyelid &
Eyelashes
Conjunctiva
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Lacrimal Glands
Lacrimal canals
& Lacrimal Sac
Nasolacrimal
Duct
Cornea
Sclera
Choroid
Ciliary body
Lens
Iris
Pupil
Aqueous Humor
Vitreous Humor
Retina
Fovea Centralis
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Optic Disk
Rods
Cones
Accommodation
Refraction
How does the vision pathway work?
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