General Senses and Sensory Receptors

These flashcards cover key concepts related to general senses, sensory receptors, and pain pathways, facilitating an understanding of sensory systems.

Stimulus

An event or condition that provokes a response or reaction in an organism.

Transduction

The process of converting energy from one form to another.

Receptor potential

A small, local, graded response generated by a stimulus in a sensory receptor.

Sensation

The awareness of a stimulus detected by sensory receptors.

Perception

The interpretation or meaning that the brain assigns to sensory information.

General senses

Senses that include touch, vibration, temperature, and pain, which are distributed throughout the body.

Special senses

Senses that have specialized organs, such as taste, smell, hearing, vision, and equilibrium.

Encapsulated nerve endings

Sensory receptors that are enclosed in specialized structures, allowing them to detect specific types of stimuli.

Unencapsulated nerve endings

Bare nerve endings that detect stimuli without specialized structures.

Receptive field

The area within which a sensory neuron can detect a stimulus.

Tonic receptors

Receptors that adapt slowly to a continuous stimulus and continue to generate nerve signals.

Phasic receptors

Receptors that adapt rapidly to a stimulus and stop firing after a while.

Nociceptors

Pain receptors that respond to harmful stimuli.

Substance P

A neurotransmitter involved in the transmission of pain signals.

Endogenous opioids

Natural pain-relieving chemicals produced by the body.

Spinothalamic pathway

A major pain pathway in the central nervous system that transmits pain signals to the brain.

Proprioceptors

Receptors that provide information about body position and movement.

Free nerve endings

Unencapsulated nerve endings that detect pain, temperature, light touch, and pressure.

Merkel discs

Unencapsulated nerve endings associated with Merkel cells, responsible for sustained light touch and pressure detection.

Meissner's corpuscles

Encapsulated nerve endings that detect light touch, pressure, and low-frequency vibration.

Pacinian corpuscles

Encapsulated nerve endings that detect deep pressure and high-frequency vibration.