Sensory Systems II: Hearing and Vision

1. Know which of our senses rely on mechanotransduction, chemotransduction, and phototransduction. 2. Understand how hair cells convey information about gravity, movement, and sound by physically opening ion channels when activated. 3. Describe the role of the outer, middle, and inner ear and what forces are being generated in each portion. 4. Recognize how sound perceived by an ear conveys information about pitch by stimulating different portions of the cochlea and volume by stimulating the hair cells w/in the cochlea more or less intensely. 5. Recall how light activates the retinal, changing opsin’s conformation and initiating the phototransduction cascade (sensory transduction for vision). 6. Describe the phototransduction cascade in general, starting with rods/cones and finishing with action potentials sent to the visual cortex. 7. Know the cellular organization of the retina and each cell's role in phototransduction (sensory transduction for vision). 8. Explain to a friend or loved one how we can see more than three colors of light despite having only three types of cone cells. (Hint: graded potentials and absorptivity overlap in the three cone cells!) stereocilia, mechanoreceptor hair cell, support cell, vestibular system, semicircular canal, outer, middle (malleus, incus, and stapes), and inner ear, Vestibulocochlear Nerve (both branches), Cochlea, eardrum, Oval window, basilar membrane, tectorial membrane, organ of Corti, hair cell stereocilia, glutamate, retinal, opsin, fovea, retina, lens, ciliary muscle, iris, optic nerve, rod vs cone, discs (containing conopsin or rhodopsin), phototransduction cascade, bipolar cell (both on and off versions), ganglion cell, horizontal cell, amacrine cell, graded potential