ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY Chapter 12 Sense Organs

Vocabulary flashcards for Chapter 12: Sense Organs, covering sensory receptor types, general and special senses, and key anatomical structures and processes related to pain, temperature, touch, proprioception, taste, smell, hearing, balance, and vision.

Sensory receptors

Structures specialized at detecting a stimulus, often consisting of specialized nerve cells or nerve endings, that transmit information about the type, location, and intensity of a stimulus.

Chemoreceptors

Receptors that react to chemicals.

Mechanoreceptors

Receptors that respond to factors changing a receptor's position, such as pressure, stretch, or vibration.

Thermoreceptors

Receptors that respond to changes in temperature.

Nociceptors

Free nerve endings that detect pain from tissue damage and carry pain impulses to the brain, abundant in skin and mucous membranes.

Photoreceptors

Receptors specialized to detect light, crucial for vision.

Proprioceptors

Receptors located in skeletal muscle, joints, tendons, and the inner ear that provide information about movement, stretch, body orientation, and aid with balance.

General Senses

Body senses including pain, pressure, touch, stretch, and temperature, with receptors widely distributed in the skin, muscles, tendons, joints, and viscera.

Special Senses

Body senses including taste, smell, hearing, equilibrium, and vision, involving receptors grouped together or clustered in specialized organs.

Warm receptors

Temperature receptors located in the dermis, activated above 250C (770F).

Cold receptors

Temperature receptors located deep in the epidermis, most active between 200 to 300C (680 to 860F).

Proprioception

The sense of orientation or position in space.

Cochlea

An inner ear structure that contains the structures essential for hearing, including the Organ of Corti.

Vestibule

An inner ear structure containing organs necessary for the sense of balance, such as the utricle and saccule.

Semicircular canals

Inner ear structures crucial for maintaining balance and equilibrium.

Auricle (Pinna)

The visible, external part of the ear.

Utricle and Saccule

Structures located inside the vestibule that contain sensory organs for balance.

Organ of Corti

The hearing sense organ, located within the cochlea.

Sclera

The outermost, protective layer of the eye.

Ciliary body

Part of the middle vascular layer of the eye, involved in accommodation and aqueous humor production.

Choroid

Part of the middle vascular layer of the eye, rich in blood vessels and providing nourishment.

Retina

The innermost neural layer of the eye where light focuses and images are converted into nerve impulses.

Rods

Photoreceptors concentrated at the periphery of the retina, active in dim light, responsible for night vision, but cannot distinguish colors.

Cones

Photoreceptors concentrated in the center of the retina, active in bright light, responsible for sharp vision and color vision.

Refraction

The bending of light rays so they focus precisely on the retina.

Convergence

Movement of the eyes to line up the visual axis of each eye on the same point for a clear single image.

Accommodation of the lens

The process by which the lens changes its curvature to focus light rays from objects at different distances onto the retina.

Constriction of the pupil

The narrowing of the pupil to restrict the amount of light entering the eye.