The Wourld Through Our Senses

Sensory organ, senses and stimuli

Stimuli – changes that occur in the surroundings.

Example : sound, chemical sunstances and light intensity

Sensory organs – Organs that detect stimuli

Each sensory organ is sensitive to only certain types of stimuli. For example, the eyes
are only sensitive to light but not to sound.

Sense – The ability of an organism to detect a stimulus

Human beings have five sensory organs

Senses of smell

Senses of touch Senses in humans senses of taste

Senses of hearing senses of sight

Relation between sensory organ, stimuli, and senses in human beings

Sensory organ Stimulus /stimuli detected Sense
Eyes Light Sense of light
Ears Sound Sense of hearing
Nose Smell Sense of smell
Skin Touch, pressure, pain, heat and Sense of touch
cold
Tongue Taste (chemicals in Food) Sense of taste

Response to stimuli

Receptor in Nerve impulses

Stimulus sensory organ Nerves

Brain

Effector Nerves
Respons Nerve impulses

Common pathway in detecting a stimulus and producing a response in human beings

Sense of Touch
1. The skin is a sensory organ that gives us our sense of touch. It can detect stimuli such
as touch, pain, pressure, heat and cold.

2. Refer to the diagram, skin consists of two main layer, the epidermis and dermis.
Below the skin is a layer of fatty tissue.

3. The skin has five different receptor;

3.1 The touch receptor – sensitive to slight pressure
3.2 The pain receptor – sensitive to pain
3.3 The heat receptor – sensitive to heat
3.4 The cold receptor – sensitive to cold
3.5 The pressure receptor – sensitive to heavy pressure

4. The sensitivity of skin depend on;

a) How close together the receptor are
Example : the lips and fingertips are very sensitive to touch due to the large
concentration of touch receptor.

b) How deep the receptor are

Example : The receptor with thick epidermis are less sensitive. The epidermis
on the neck is thinner than that on the knee. So neck more sensitive than the
skin at the knee.

c) The sense of touch is very important to the blind because it helps them to identify
object and feel their way around and to reads book in Braille .
Sense of Smell
1. Smells are actually chemicals present in the air.

2. The nose can detect these chemicals.

3. The smell receptors or sensory cells are located at the roof of the nasal cavity.
Refer to diagram. This position allows the smell receptor to have the maximum
exposure to the air current.

4. How smells are detected;

a) When air is breathed in, the air current passes through the nasal cavity. The
chemicals present in the air dissolve in the mucous lining and stimulate the
smell receptor.

b) These receptors send out nerve impulses to the brain. The brain interprets
the message and identify the smells.
Sense of Taste

1. The tongue is the sensory organ related to the sense of taste.

2. It is sensitive to four basic tastes – sweet, salty, sour and bitter.
3. The surface of the tongue is covered with little bumps. These bumps contains
tiny structures called taste buds. Each taste bud contains many taste receptors
which are sensitive to chemicals in food.
4. There are four types of taste buds , one for each basic taste. Different areas of
the tongue are sensitive to different tastes. Refer to the diagram;

5. How taste detected ;

a) When we chew our food, the chemicals of the food dissolve in the salive.

b) The dissolved chemicals stimulate the taste receptors in the taste buds to
produce nerve impulses.

c) Messages are sent to the brain to be interpreted. This enables us to identify

the taste of the food.
6. The nasal cavity and the mouth cavity are connected. This allows the taste and
smell of food in the mouth to be detected at the same time.
Sense of Hearing
The human ear has three main parts – the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear.

Part Structure Function

Outer ear
a) Pinna (ear flap) Shape like funnel. Made of Collects and directs sound waves
cartilage and skin. into the ear canal

b) Ear cannal A 2.5 cm long, narrow tube lined Directs sound waves to the
with hair. eardrum
Middle ear
a) Eardrum A thin , stretched membrane at the Vibrates when sound waves hit it
end of the ear canal
Amplify vibrations and transfer
b) Ossicles Three small bones them from the eardrum to the oval
window.

Transfers vibrations from the

c) Oval window A thin , small membrane at the end ossicles to the cochlea
of the ossicles
Equalises the air pressure on both
d) Eustachian tube A narrow tube that connects the sides of the eardrum, thus
middle ear to the back of the throat. preventing itu from damage.
Inner ear
a) Cochlea A called tube filled with fluid and Detects vibrations and converts
lined with tiny hair-like sensory them into nerve impulses
cells.

b) Auditory nerve Nerve fibres that connect the ear to Carries vibrations and converts
the brain them into nerve impulses

c) Semicircular Three semicircular cannals Detect the position and movement

canals situated at right angles to each of the head to help us keep our
other. Contain fluid and sensory balance (Note: They are not
cells. involved in the hearing
mechanism.
8. How sounds are detected by the ear :

a) The pinna collects sound waves and directs them along the ear canal to the eardrum.

b) When the sound waves hit the eardrum, it vibrates at the same frequency as the sound
waves. The vibrations are then transferred to the ossicles.

c) The ossicles amplify for the vibrations about 20 times before transferring them
to the oval window.

d) The vibration of the oval windows causes the fluid in the cochlea to move in the
form of waves . The movement of the fluid stimulates the sensory cells or
receptors in the cochlea. Nerve impulses are produced.

e) The auditory nerve carries the impulses to the brain.

f) The brain interprets the impulses as sounds.

Sense of Sight
1. The eyes are the sensory organs of sight. They are sensitive to light.
2. The eyelids and eyelashes keep dust and dirt out of the eyes.
3. The eye brows help to prevent sweat from running into the eyes.

4. The wall of eyeball is made up of three layers.

(a) Sclere – tough, outer layer
(b) Choroid – black, middle layer
(c) Retina – sensitive to light , innermost layer

The structure of the human eye and the function of the different parts
 Part Stucture Function

Sclera White, fibrous, outer layer that Protects and maintains the shape
is opaque and tough of the eyeball
Choroid Middle layer that contains - The blood vessels supply
black pigment and many blood nutrients and oxygen to the eye.
vessels - The black pigment absorbs light
and therefore prevents reflection
of light inside the eye which
would make an image less sharp.
Retina The innermost layer of the - Detect light and produces nerve
eyeball. It contains many impulses
photoreceptors known as cones - The cones detect colours in
and rods bright light, enabling us to have
colour vision
-The rods enables us to see in dim
light . They detect shades of grey
in dim light.
Cornea The curved and transparent Its curved surface helps to refract
layer of the sclera at the front (bend) light onto the retina.
of the eye.
Conjunctiva The thin , transparent layer of Protects the cornea
membrane in front of the
cornea
Iris The coloured part of the eye Controls the size of the pupil and
that is continous with the thus the amount of light entering
choroids. It is made up of the eye.
muscles
Pupil The hole in the centre of the Controls the amount of light
iris entering the eye.
Lens A transparent bioconvex and -It refract and focuses an image
leastic disc. onto the retina.
-The thickness of the lens is
changed to focus near and distant
objects.
Ciliary body Make up of strong muscle Contract and relaxes to change
the thickness of the lens
Suspensory Strong fibres that connect the Hold the lens in its position
ligaments lens to the ciliary body
Aqueous humour A watery transparent liquid - Helps to focus the image onto
that fills the space between the the retina
cornea and the lens -Helps to maintain the shape of
the eyeball
-The cornea , the conjunctiva and
the lens obtain food and oxygen
from the blood vessels in the
choroids layer by diffusion
through this liquid.
Vitreous humour A thick , jelly-like and
transparent substance that fills
the space behind the lens
Yellow spot(fovea) The most sensitive spot on
the retina. It is located directly
opposite the pupil
Blind spot A point on the retina where
the optic nerve leaves the eye.
There are no photoreceptors
here.
Optic nerve Made up of nerve fibres that
connect the retina to the brain.
-Helps to focus the image onto
the retina
-Helps to maintain the shape of
the eyeball
Detect light or image that fall
on it
Images that fall on this spot
cannot be detected.
Carries nerve impulses from the
retina to the brain.

5. How wee see

1. When we look at an object, light rays from the object enter each eye through the
pupil. The intensity of the light influences the size of the pupil.
a) When it is very bright , the size of the pupil decreases to let in less light.
b) When it is dim, the size of the pupil increases to let in more light.

2. As the light rays pass through the cornea, the aqueous humour , the lens and vitreous
humour, the rays are refracted to form an image on the retina.

3. The image is upside down and smaller than the actual object.

4. The brain interprets the impulses and we can see the object the right way up. The
interpretation also allows us to know the shape, the colour , the size and the distance of
the object.
 5. Eyes have the ability to focus on objects a different distance. Refer to diagram;

Light and Sight

Properties of light;

a). Light travels in straight lines within the same medium

b). Light extremely fast and has speed of 3.0 x 10 8 ms-1 in air.
c). Light can be reflacted when it hits a surface
d). Light can be refracted when it travels from one transparent medium to another.
1. A beam of light is made up of a bundle of rays. It can be parellal , divergent or
convergent. Refer to the diagram.

2. Reflaction of light
a) Reflaction of light occurs when light bounces off the surface of an object. Refer
to diagram

b) When a parallel beam of light hits a very smooth surface, it is reflected as a

parallel beam. Its called ‘regular reflection’. It also produced sharpe image.

c) When a parallel beam of light hits a rough surface cause the reflected light to head
off in all directions. This type of reflection is called irregular of diffuse reflection.
Refer to the diagram;
Defect of vision and ways to correct them

Short-sightness Long-sightness
(myopia) (hypermetropia)

Similarity

Both are caused by the conditions of lens and eyeball

Differences

- Sees near objects clearly Condition - Sees distant objects clearly

- Distance object are blurred of vision - Near objects are blurred

- The lens is too thick - The lens is too thin

- The eyeball is too long Causes - The eyeball is too short
 Agtigmatism Colur-
blindness

Long- Defect of vision

Presbyopia
sightedness

Short-
sightdness
 Blind spot
Optical illusion
Monocular
vision
Limitation of
sight
Cannot see
tiny objects
Stereoscopic
vision
Cannot see
very distance
object

Diagram 4 : Monocular and stereoscopic vision

 Magnifying glass Binoculars

Ultrasound Periscope
scanning
Devises to overcome
limitation of sight
Magnetic
Resonance Imaging x- ray machine
(MRI) machine
Telescope

Stimuli and Responses in Plants

a) Tropisms

Tropism are growth responses of plants to external stimuli

b) Geotropism

Geotropism is the growth movement shown by plant in response to gravity

c) Phototropism

Phototropism is the growth movement shown by plants in response to light

d) Hydrotropism

Hydrotropism is the growth movement shown by plants in response to water.

e) Thigmotropism

Thigmotropism is a response by plants to touch or contact with the solid structure

Structure questions

1. Figure 1 shows the cross section of the human ear

(a) Name the parts labeled M to Q

(b) Which labeled parts of the ear responsible in carrying out the following
functions ?

(i) Changing sound vibrations to electrical messages

(ii) Amplifying sound vibrations
(iii) Helps in balancing by detecting the position of the head

(c) Complete the sequence below to show how sound is detected by the human
ear.

Pinna

Auditory Nerve
2. Figure 2 shows the cross section of the human eye.

(a) label the cornea and retina in Figure 2

(b) The following sequence shows the path of light rays from the object entering
the human eye.

Cornea Aqueous humou Pupil R Vitreous humour Retina

(i) Mark R in Figure 2

(ii) State the function of R

(c) A student suffers from a detect of vision due to his slightly long eyeball.

(i) Name the defect of vision the student is suffering from

(ii) Mark X along the line EF to show the position of the image that is
formed in his eye
(iii) What kind of lense can be used to correct this defect?