THE SPECIAL SENSES

 SENSES
are the means by which the brain receives information
about the environment and the body. It includes the five senses:
smell, taste, sight, hearing, and, touch
 SENSATION
is the process initiated by stimulating sensory receptors
 PERCEPTION
is the conscious awareness of those stimuli.
 SENSES
I. The General Senses II. The Special Senses
A. Somatic Senses Smell
1. Touch
Taste
2. Pressure
3. Proprioception Sight
4. Temperature Hearing
5. Pain Balance
B. Visceral Senses
1. Pain
2. Pressure
 SENSES
I. The General Senses
 Have receptors distributed over a large part of the body.
A. Somatic Senses
provide sensory information about the body and the
environment.
B. Visceral Senses
provide information about various internal organs, primarily
involving pain and pressure
II. The Special Senses
 Are more specialized in structure and are localized to specific parts of
the body. The special senses are smell, taste, sight, hearing and
balance.
 SENSES
Objectives:
• Identify the location, structure, and functions of
the general and special sense organs.
a. Tactile
b. Gustation
c. Hearing and Balance
d. Olfactory
e. Vision
 SENSORY RECEPTORS
 are sensory nerve endings or specialized cells capable of responding to
stimuli by developing to stimuli by developing action potentials.
Types of Receptors:
a. Mechanoreceptors
it responds to mechanical stimuli, such as bending or stretching of
receptors.
b. Chemoreceptors
respond to chemicals. For example, odor molecules bind to
chemoreceptors
c. Photoreceptors
respond to light.
d. Thermoreceptors
respond to temperature changes.
e. Nociceptors
respond to stimuli that result in the sensation of pain
TACTILE
 General Senses
 The general sense have sensory receptors that are
widely distributed throughout the body
 It includes the senses of touch, pressure, pain,
temperature, vibration, itch, and proprioception, which
is the sense of movement and position of the body and
limbs.
 Many of the receptors for the general senses are
associated with the skin others are associated with
deeper structures, such as tendons, ligaments, and
muscles.
Types of receptors:
A. Free Nerve Ending
 This are relatively unspecialized neuronal branches similar to dendrites. It is
distributed throughout almost all parts of the body.
 Some free nerve endings respond to painful stimuli, some to temperature,
some to itch, and some to movement.

B. Cold Receptors or Warm Receptors

 Cold receptors respond to decreasing temperatures but stop responding
at temperatures below 12ºC
 Warm receptors respond to increasing temperatures but stop responding
at temperatures above 47ºC
C. Touch Receptors
 Many touch receptors are enclosed by capsules.

Types of Touch Receptors:

a. Merkel disks
are small, superficial nerve endings involved in detecting light touch and superficial
pressure.
b. Hair follicle receptors
associated with hairs, are also involved in detecting light touch.
c. Meissner Corpuscles
are located just deep to the epidermis. These receptors are very specific in localizing
tactile sensations.
d. Ruffini Corpuscles
the deeper tactile receptors, play an important role in detecting continuous pressure in
the skin.
e. Pacinian Corpuscles
the deepest receptors are associated with tendons and joints. These receptors relay
information concerning deep pressure, vibration, and position(proprioception)
 Sensory receptors in the Skin

I. Pain
 Is characterized by a group of unpleasant experiences.
There are two types of pain sensation:
1. Localized, sharp, pricking, or cutting pain resulting from
rapidly conducted action potentials, and
2. Diffuse burning, or aching pain resulting from action
potentials that are propagated more slowly
 Sensory Receptors of the Skin
A. Local Anesthesia
suppresses action potentials from pain receptors in local
areas of the body through the injection of chemical anesthetics
near a sensory receptor or nerve.

B. General Anesthesia
a treatment where chemical anesthetics that affect the
reticular activating system are administrated.
 Sensory Receptors in the Skin
II. Referred Pain
 Is perceived to originate in a region of the body that is not
the source of the pain stimulus.
 We sense referred pain when deeper, such as internal
organs, are damaged or inflamed
 It is clinically useful in diagnosing the actual cause of the
pain stimulus.
Gustation
 The sensory that detects taste stimuli are the
taste buds.
 The taste buds are oval structures located
on the surface of a certain papillae, which
are enlargements on the surface of the
tongue
 Each taste bud consist of two types of cells:
• Specialized epithelial cells from the exterior
supporting capsule of each taste bud, and
• The interior consists of about 40 taste cells
 Each taste cell contains hairlike processs,
called taste hairs, that extend through a tiny
opening in the surrounding stratified
epithelium, called a taste pore.
 Taste sensations are carried to the brain
by three cranial nerves:
a. Facial nerve
transmits taste sensations from the
anterior two-thirds of the tongue.
a. Glossopharyngeal nerve
carries taste sensations from the
posterior one-third
a. Vagus nerve
carries some taste sensations from
the root of the tongue
 The trigmenial nerve carries tactile
sensations from the anterior two thirds
of the tongue.
 The chorda tympani from the facial
nerve joins the trigemenial nerve.
Hearing and Balance
 Hearing and Balance
Hearing Balance
 Vibrations create sound waves.  The sense of balance, or equilibrium.
Sound waves are collected by the
 Two components:
auricle and conducted through the
external auditory canal toward the a. Static equilibrium
tympanic membrane. Sound waves Is associated with the vestibule and is
strike the tympanic membrane and involved in evaluating the position of the
cause it to vibrate. head relative to gravity.
b. Dynamic Equilibrium
Is associated with the semicircular
canals and is involved in evaluating changes
in the direction and rate of head
movements.
 Hearing and Balance
I. External Ear
 Is the part extending from the
outside of the head to the
tympanic membrane, commonly
called the eardrum
II. Middle Ear
 Is an air-filled chamber medial to
the tympanic membrane.
III. Inner Ear
 Is a set of fluid-filled chambers
medial to the middle ear.
 Hearing and Balance
I. Outer ear:
 Pinna – ear flap
Collects and directs sound waves
into the ear
 Auditory canal – channels waves to
the ear drum; houses ceruminous
glands
Ceruminous glands - secrete ear
wax (cerumin) to keep ear drum moist
 Tympanic membrane – ear drum
Catches vibrations and sends
them to the bones of the inner ear;
separates the outer and middle ear
 Hearing and Balance
II. Middle ear:
 Eustachian tube(Auditory Tube) –
connects the ear to the throat and
equalizes pressure
 Ossicles:
a. Hammer (malleus) – outermost bones,
receives vibrations from tympanic
membrane
b. Anvil (incus) – middle bone
c. Stirrup (stapes) – innermost bone,
transfers vibrations to the cochlea
 Oval Window and Round Window
connects the middle ear with the inner
ear.
 Hearing and Balance
III. Inner Ear
A. Bony Labrynth
a cavity in the temporal bone,
and is divided into three sections: the
cochlea which is involved in hearing,
the vestibule and the semicircular
canals are involved primarily in
balance.
B. Membranous Labrynth
is filled with a membranous fluid
called endolymph, and the space
between the membranous and bony
labrynts is filled with a clear fluid called
perylimph.
 That in all things
God may be glorified