Chapter Objectives

After studying this chapter, students should be able to . . .

Explain how sensory receptors are categorized, give examples of functional categories and explain how tonic and phasic receptors differ.

Explain the law of specific nerve energies.

Describe the characteristics of the generator potential.

Give examples of different types of cutaneous receptors and describe the neural pathways for the cutaneous senses.

Explain the concepts of receptive fields and lateral inhibition.

Describe the distribution of taste receptors on the tongue and explain how salty, sour, sweet and bitter tastes are produced.

Describe the structure and function of the olfactory receptors, and explain how odor discrimination might be accomplished.

Describe the structure of the vestibular apparatus and explain how it provides information about acceleration of the body in different directions.

Describe the functions of the outer and middle ear.

Describe the structure of the cochlea and explain how movements of the stapes against the oval window result in vibrations of the basilar membrane.

Explain how mechanical energy is converted into nerve impulses by the organ of Corti and how pitch perception is accomplished.

Describe the structure of the eye, and how images are brought to a focus on the retina.

Explain how visual accommodation is achieved and describe the defects associated with myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism.

Describe the architecture of the retina, and trace the pathways of light and nerve activity through the retina.

Describe the function of rhodopsin in the rods and explain dark adaptation is achieved.

Explain how light affects the electrical activity of rods and their synaptic input to bipolar cells.

Explain the trichromatic theory of color vision.

Compare rods and cones with respect to their locations, synaptic connections, and functions.

Describe the neural pathways from the retina, explaining the differences in pathways from different regions of the visual field.

Describe the receptive fields of ganglion cells and state the stimulus requirements for simple, complex, and hypercomplex cortical neurons.

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