Sensory Systems

Question 1

What can you see in a lateral view of human anatomy?

Answer 1

The anterior/vestral and the posterior/dorsal.

Question 2

What can you see in an anterior view of human anatomy?

Answer 2

A view from left to right, including the midline and medial.

Question 3

Why is the top of the human brain referred to as dorsal?

Answer 3

Humans went from walking on 4 limbs to walking on only 2.

Question 4

Which part of the peripheral nervous system controls our “internal environment”?

Answer 4

The autonomic nervous system.

Question 5

Which part of the peripheral nervous system controls our “external environment”?

Answer 5

The somatic nervous system.

Question 6

Name the theory that suggested the nervous system wad made up of a single, interlinking network.

Answer 6

Reticular theory

Question 7

Name the theory that suggested the nervous system was made up of discrete individual cells.

Answer 7

Neuron Doctrine

Question 8

What did development of microscopy in the 1950s reveal about the CNS?

Answer 8

Synapses

Question 9

What is proprioception?

Answer 9

The perception of the position of limbs in space.

Question 10

What is kinethesis?

Answer 10

The perception of body movements.

Question 11

What is haptic perception?

Answer 11

A combination of touch perception of patterns on the skin surface and proprioception of hand movements.

Question 12

What is a complex tone?

Answer 12

A tone that consists of 2 or more pure tones (first harmonic and higher harmonics).

Question 13

Where are the cochlea and the receptors for hearing?

Answer 13

The inner ear.

Question 14

Name the 3 small bones in the middle ear that transmit vibrations from the outer to inner ear.

Answer 14

Ossicles

Question 15

What is the name for the perceived quality of a sound?

Answer 15

Pitch

Question 16

What is a pure tone?

Answer 16

A tone with pressure changes that can be described by a single sine wave.

Question 17

Name the organs that sense head motion and head orientation with respect to gravity.

Answer 17

Vestibular organs

Question 18

What do semicircular canals sense?

Answer 18

Angular motion

Question 19

What do otolith organs sense?

Answer 19

Linear acceleration and gravity

Question 20

What is interaural time difference?

Answer 20

When there is a difference in the time of sound arrival in the ears.

Question 21

What is the minimum stimulus energy for an observer to detect it?

Answer 21

Absolute threshold

Question 22

What is the minimum detectable difference between 2 stimuli?

Answer 22

Difference threshold

Question 23

Name the law stating that the ratio of the difference threshold to the stimulus intensity is constant.

Answer 23

Weber’s law

Question 24

What is the name for a “device” that converts a signal in one form of energy into another?

Answer 24

Transducer

Question 25

Where is grey matter?

Answer 25

Surrounding the central cavity of the brain.

Question 26

Where is white matter?

Answer 26

Exterior to grey matter.

Question 27

Which type of glial cell myelinates axons in the PNS?

Answer 27

Shwann cells

Question 28

Which type of glial cell myelinates axons in the CNS?

Answer 28

Oligodendrocytes

Question 29

What is the name given to a small change in membrane potential?

Answer 29

Graded potential

Question 30

Which pathway carries information about skin temperature and pain?

Answer 30

Spinothalamic pathway

Question 31

Which pathway carries signals from skin, muscles and joints?

Answer 31

DCLM pathway

Question 32

What are mechanoreceptors?

Answer 32

Receptors which respond to touch (e.g. Pressure, stretching, vibration).

Question 33

What are nocioceptors?

Answer 33

Receptors which respond to stimuli that are damaging to the skin (I.e. Pain).

Question 34

What are thermoreceptors?

Answer 34

Receptors which respond to temperature.

Question 35

Describe the somatosensory system.

Answer 35

The cutaneous sense and proprioception.

Question 36

What are the 5 basic tastes the tongue has receptors for?

Answer 36

Salty, sour, sweet, bitter and unami.

Question 37

Where on the tongue are circumvallate papillae located?

Answer 37

The back.

Question 38

Where on the tongue are foliate papillae located?

Answer 38

The sides.

Question 39

Where on the tongue are fungiform papillae located?

Answer 39

The tip.

Question 40

What are the 2 ways transduction occurs during taste?

Answer 40

Tastings contain charged particles which directly change MP or are bound by receptors which trigger a chain of processes.

Question 41

What is the olfactory epithelium?

Answer 41

The region inside the nose that contains the receptors for smell.

Question 42

Give 2 theories for how odorants are transduced?

Answer 42

Shape theory and molecule vibration theory.

Question 43

How is information from odorants transmitted to the cortex?

Answer 43

Odortopy

Question 44

Which sense shows the most intense emotional recollection?

Answer 44

Smell

Question 45

Name the principle that describes how the magnitude of sensation increases proportionally to the logarithm of the stimulus intensity.

Answer 45

Fechner's law

Question 46

How is sound pressure perceived by humans?

Answer 46

As loudness.

Question 47

How is sound frequency perceived by humans?

Answer 47

As pitch.

Question 48

What is timbre?

Answer 48

The perceived quality that makes 2 tones sound different, even with the same pitch, loudness and duration.

Question 49

Which part of the hear serves as an amplifier?

Answer 49

The middle ear.

Question 50

Where are the smallest skeletal muscles in the body?

Answer 50

The middle ear.

Question 51

What are sound waves?

Answer 51

The pattern of pressure changes in a medium.

Question 52

What is frequency?

Answer 52

The number of times per second that pressure changes of a sound stimulus repeat.

Question 53

What area should be thought of as the body's microphone?

Answer 53

The organ of Corti in the cochlea.

Question 54

What are the receptors for sound?

Answer 54

Hair cells in the cochlea.

Question 55

Which hair cells are primarily responsible for auditory transduction?

Answer 55

Inner

Question 56

Which hair cells are primarily responsible for amplifying basilar membrane vibration?

Answer 56

Outer

Question 57

How does interaural time difference indicate direction of sounds?

Answer 57

The sound reaches one ear faster than the other.

Question 58

How does interaural level difference indicate direction of sounds?

Answer 58

The difference in sound pressure in each ear creates an acoustic shadow in the far ear.

Question 59

What is electromagnetic radiation?

Answer 59

Radiant energy propagating through space via electromagnetic waves and/or photons.

Question 60

What is referred to as visible light?

Answer 60

The range of EMR that is visible to humans.

Question 61

What does the iris control and how does it do so?

Answer 61

It controls the amount of light that can enter the eye by changing the pupil size.

Question 62

What is the main focusing element of the eye?

Answer 62

The cornea

Question 63

In vision, what is accommodation?

Answer 63

The change in the shape of lenses to focus at different distances.

Question 64

In vision, what is the near point?

Answer 64

The nearest point to the eye at which an object can be accurately focused on the retina at full accommodation.

Question 65

Which area of the retina is located directly opposite the pupil on the line of sight?

Answer 65

Fovea

Question 66

What causes the blind spot?

Answer 66

It it the area where the optic nerve leaves the back of the eye so there are no visual receptors.

Question 67

What are the 2 components of gangial cells?

Answer 67

Excitatory centre and inhibitory surround.

Question 68

Which ganglion cells have large receptive fields, are indifferent to wavelengths and adapt rapidly?

Answer 68

M cells

Question 69

Which ganglion cells have small receptive fields, are sensitive to wavelengths and adapt slowly?

Answer 69

P cells

Question 70

Briefly describe the transmission of visual information to the cortex.

Answer 70

Stimulus -> Retinal image -> Retiontopic mapping in left V1

Question 71

What is colour?

Answer 71

The sensation that allows us to discriminate 2 unstructured surfaces of equal luminance.

Question 72

What is the theory that colour vision is based on 3 classes of receptors for 3 primary colours?

Answer 72

Thrichromatic theory

Question 73

Which colour deficiency is due to the absence of S-opsin?

Answer 73

Tritanopia

Question 74

Which colour deficiency is due to the absence of M-opsin?

Answer 74

Deuteronopia

Question 75

Which colour deficiency is due to the absence of L-opsin?

Answer 75

Protanopia

Question 76

What are the 3 opponent systems in colour processing?

Answer 76

White vs. black, red vs. green and blue vs. yellow.

Question 77

Describe synesthesia.

Answer 77

A condition where stimulation of one modality results in experience of another modality.