Senses
- Vestibular Sense
- : whole-body orientation, balance
- Semicircular canals
1. In charge of balance 2. Three of them 3. In the ear 4. Filled with liquid so your brain knows when and how you move
- Works with cerebellum and procedural memory
- Kinesthetic Sense
- Movement
- Muscle sense
- Location of specific body parts
1. Receptors in joints, muscles
- Touch
- Skin connects to the somatosensory cortex (in parietal lobe)
- Four forms: pressure, pain, cold, warmth
- Different parts of the body have different levels of sensitivity
- Homunculus: representation of which parts of your body are most sensitive
- Pain
- Two types
1. Fast pathway: emergencies like broken bones. Sharp pains
1. Thick, myelinated A-delta fibers (myelinated: lots of glial cells) 2. Slow pathway: not as serious. Aching and burning
1. Longer-lasting
- Gate-control theory: we have a neural “gate” at the spinal cord that blocks pain signals under some circumstances
- Smell
- Olfaction
- Odors interact with receptor proteins associated w hairs in the nose (hairs that hang down from olfactory bulbs. Not nose hairs)
- Info goes to olfactory bulbs in limbic system
- Olfaction is connected to memory (hippocampus) and emotion (amygdala)
- Anosmia = loss of smell
- Chemosensory sense: requires chemicals
- Taste
- Gustation (Gustavs in ratatouille (not him bringing it up after I did!!))
- Taste is a chemosensory sense
- Receptors are papillae
1. Easily damaged and frequently replaced
- Flavor = taste and smell
1. Sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami (proteins)