Sensation: Taste, Smell, and Hearing Lecture Notes

These flashcards cover key concepts related to the sensation processes of taste, smell, and hearing.

Taste

The sense that allows us to perceive flavors through five main tastes: salty, sour, sweet, bitter, and umami.

Taste Receptors

Cells that allow the perception of taste, arranged in taste buds.

Papillae

Small bumps on the tongue that house taste buds and are not specialized for specific tastants.

Gustation

The process of tasting, involving the activation of taste receptor cells.

Neurotransmitter

Chemical substances released from neurons that transmit signals to other cells.

Transduction

The process by which receptors convert a stimulus into neural signals.

Bitter Tastes

Perceived through T2R receptors which can detect a variety of bitter compounds.

Olfactory Epithelium

Tissue in the nasal cavity responsible for the sense of smell, containing olfactory receptor neurons.

Olfactory Receptor Neurons

Specialized cells that detect odorants and are capable of regeneration.

Tonotopic Map

A spatial representation of sound frequencies processed by the auditory system.

Cochlea

A spiral structure in the inner ear that translates sound waves into neural signals.

Hair Cells

Sensory cells in the cochlea that convert sound vibrations into electrical signals.

Neuromuscular Junction

Site where motor neurons communicate with muscle fibers to induce contraction.

Somatosensation

The sensory system that processes sensory input from the skin, including touch, temperature, and pain.

Nociceptors

Receptors that detect painful stimuli, contributing to the sensation of pain.

Phantom Limb Pain

Pain that feels like it's coming from a body part that is no longer there, caused by abnormal signaling in the nervous system.

Critical Period

A developmental timeframe during which the sensory systems are particularly sensitive to environmental input.

Basal Ganglia Go/Stop System

Neural circuits that regulate voluntary movement initiation and inhibition through dopaminergic pathways.

Dorsal Pathway

Visual processing pathway involved in perceiving the location of objects.

Ventral Pathway

Visual processing pathway involved in object recognition and identification.

Feature Integration Theory

The theory that visual perception involves the combination of multiple features detected by different neurons.