Written by students who passed Immediately available after payment Read online or as PDF Wrong document? Swap it for free 4.6 TrustPilot
logo-home
Class notes

Sensory Systems I: Touch, Taste, and Smell

Rating
-
Sold
-
Pages
3
Uploaded on
22-04-2026
Written in
2025/2026

1. Differentiate between chemo- mechano- and photoreception in general including the specialized proteins responsible for receiving the different environmental signals. 2. Know the process of sensory transduction in general, from detection to signal transmission to the brain. 3. Understand how action potentials convey information about intensity, location, and duration, and enhance edge and border detection. 4. Know which of our senses rely on GPCRs for signal transduction and why. 5. Describe sensory transduction for olfaction (smell) from stimulus detection to neuronal transmission, all the way to the brain. 6. Compare and contrast sensory transduction for the five basic flavors humans can detect, differentiating between those that directly depolarize sensory cells and how versus the flavors that rely on GPCRs. Sensory receptor cell, sensory organ, sensory transduction, chemoreceptor, mechanoreceptor, photoreceptor, electroreceptor, thermoreceptor, nociceptor, lateral inhibition, G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR), G-protein, Olfactory epithelium, olfactory sensory neuron, chemo-sensitive hair, taste bud, taste sensory cell, microvilli, five flavors (which are G-protein coupled?), trigeminal nerve

Show more Read less

Content preview

Animalsensorysystems1 Lecture 4 ma
cortex corteses governyoursenses communicate w otherpartstohelpw decisionmaking
sensoryreceptors extraspecialproteins insensorycells embeddedinsensoryorgans
detectstimuli light chemicals pressure temperature sound receptor
cells
sensorytransductionistheconversionof physicalor chemicalstimuliintonerveimpulses actionpotential




moleculespecialized
either fireactionpotentials themselves or synapsewithotherneuronsthatfireactionpotentials whicharethentransmittedtoaus
inmanycases stimulicancause ionchannels in membrane to openindirectly causesignaltransduction insensoryneurons
olfactionomen environmental stimulidirectlycausessignaltransduction
sensorytransduction chemoreceptors

a chemoreceptors detect chemicalsbybindingspecificmolecules tospecificprotein receptorson cell
the membrane




tasteNatin
environmentsignal
changes ionHow changesmembranepotential s startsa neuralsignal
to
openion ligand molecule in chemoreceptionoften notalways bindsto a GPCRwhichthen
channelprotein
activates a secondary messengerpathwaythatdepolarizesthecell unlikeligandgatedchannels
animalsdetectkeymolecules o2co2 glucose aminoacids
receptorcellis chemoreceptionunderlies smell
depolarized

moleculesbindtoproteinreceptoron a tastereceptor proteinreceptor changesconformation triggersopeningofwat
channelsthrough a coupledsignaltransductionpathways influxofNat depolarizescellreceptormembrane
insometastereceptorsensorycells no aptires but depolarization travels farenoughto triggerreleaseof
neurotransmitters sosignaltransductioncomplete
sensorytransduction mechanoreceptors
pressure
mechanoreceptorsrespondto physicaldeformationsoftheirmembraneproducedbytouch
stretch pressure motion and sound
deformationopensionchannels causingdepolarizationand neurotransmitter release
ex ears catwhiskers stretchreceptors inmusclesthatinfluencethemuscle's motoractivation
mechanoreception oftactileinformation


transductioncuticlecell
a
touch
distinct morphologically
vibration andtension pressure
toprovideinformationtothecnsabout
mechanoreceptors specialized



is
Meissner's corpuscles Pacinancorpuscles disks andRuffini's corpuscles
Merkel's
receptorsarecollectivelylow
these threshold highsensitivity

depolarizedsensory all lowthreshold mechanoreceptors areinnervatedbyrelativelylarge myelinatedaxons ensuring
rapidsignal
transduction photoreceptors
sensorydetectors in eyesareliantdetecting photoreceptors



themlightxsignal
vertebrates photoreceptors respondtoindividualphotonsoflight
energybyclosingNatchannels
to
ion causingthemtobehyper
close
polarized
channelcell inhibitthefiringrate ofotherneurons intheeyeratherthanexciting
is
hyperpolarizedprotein
receptorvariety
of sensory
receptorsThermoreceptors
receptors nottested
infish respondtoheat cold helpto
receptorincontactw controlmetabolism andpatterns



skinelectro
environment ofbloodflow
nociceptors nottested regulatingbodytempbyregulating
painreceptors levelsofheatlossandgain
APtobrain spinalcord hypothalamus
external internal in

Document information

Uploaded on
April 22, 2026
Number of pages
3
Written in
2025/2026
Type
Class notes
Professor(s)
Jeremiah yahn
Contains
All classes

Subjects

$11.89
Get access to the full document:

Wrong document? Swap it for free Within 14 days of purchase and before downloading, you can choose a different document. You can simply spend the amount again.
Written by students who passed
Immediately available after payment
Read online or as PDF

Get to know the seller
Seller avatar
anhnguyen9

Get to know the seller

Seller avatar
anhnguyen9 University Of Wisconsin-Madison
View profile
Follow You need to be logged in order to follow users or courses
Sold
-
Member since
2 months
Number of followers
0
Documents
54
Last sold
-

0.0

0 reviews

5
0
4
0
3
0
2
0
1
0

Recently viewed by you

Why students choose Stuvia

Created by fellow students, verified by reviews

Quality you can trust: written by students who passed their tests and reviewed by others who've used these notes.

Didn't get what you expected? Choose another document

No worries! You can instantly pick a different document that better fits what you're looking for.

Pay as you like, start learning right away

No subscription, no commitments. Pay the way you're used to via credit card and download your PDF document instantly.

Student with book image

“Bought, downloaded, and aced it. It really can be that simple.”

Alisha Student

Working on your references?

Create accurate citations in APA, MLA and Harvard with our free citation generator.

Working on your references?

Frequently asked questions