Week 5: Senses - Completed

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and definitions related to the sensory system and perceptions.

General senses

Includes touch, pain, temperature, proprioception, vibration, and pressure.

Special senses

Includes vision, taste, smell, hearing, and the sense of equilibrium.

Thermoreceptors

Sensory receptors that respond to thermal stimulation, such as heat or cold.

Dermatomes

Regions of the skin that are supplied by a spinal nerve for somatic sensations.

Myotomes

Muscle groups that each spinal nerve can attach to.

Sensory adaptation

A reduction in sensitivity to a stimulus after constant exposure.

Transduction

The process in which sensory receptors convert stimulus energy into an action potential.

Phasic receptors

Fast-adapting sensory receptors that shut down quickly upon continuous stimulation.

Tonic receptors

Slowly-adapting receptors that signal continuously as long as they sense the stimuli.

Referred pain

Pain that is felt in an area of the body different from its actual source.

Proprioceptors

Receptors that detect the position of joints and body movement.

Free nerve endings

Sensory nerve endings that are sensitive to painful stimuli, heat, cold, and light touch.

Meissner's corpuscles

Mechanoreceptors that detect light touch and low-frequency vibrations.

Ruffini corpuscles

Mechanoreceptors that detect stretching and pressure.

Pacinian corpuscles

Mechanoreceptors that sense deep pressure and high-frequency vibrations.

Nociceptors

Receptors that respond to damaging stimuli and sense pain.

Chemoreceptors

Receptors that respond to dissolved chemicals, involved in taste and smell.