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Written by
Carl Pfaffmann
Fact-checked by
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Article History
sensory reception
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- Related Topics:
- human eye
- chemoreception
- mechanoreception
- thermoreception
- pain
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human sensory reception, means by which humans react to changes in external and internal environments.
Ancient philosophers called the human senses “the windows of the soul,” and Aristotle described at least five senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Aristotle’s influence has been so enduring that many people still speak of the five senses as if there were no others. Yet the modern sensory catalog now includes receptors in the muscles, tendons, and joints, which give rise to the kinesthetic sense (that is, the sense of motion), and receptors in the vestibular organs in the inner ear, which give rise to the sense of balance. Within the circulatory system, sensory receptors are found that are sensitive to carbon dioxide in the blood or to changes in blood pressure or heart rate, and there are receptors in the digestive tract that appear to mediate such experiences as hunger and thirst. Some brain cells may also participate as hunger receptors. This is especially true of cells in the lower parts of the brain (such as the hypothalamus) where some cells have been found to be sensitive to changes in blood chemistry (water and other products of digestion) and even to changes in temperature within the brain itself.
General considerations of sensation
Basic features of sensory structures
One way to classify sensory structures is by the stimuli to which they normally respond; thus, there are photoreceptors (for light), mechanoreceptors (for distortion or bending), thermoreceptors (for heat), chemoreceptors (e.g., for chemical odours), and nociceptors (for painful stimuli). This classification is useful because it makes clear that various sense organs can share common features in the way they convert (transduce) stimulus energy into nerve impulses. Thus, auditory cells and vestibular (balance) receptors in the ear and some receptors in the skin all respond similarly to mechanical displacement (distortion). Because many of the same principles apply to other animals, their receptors can be studied as models of the human senses. In addition, many animals are endowed with specialized receptors that permit them to detect stimuli that humans cannot sense. The pit viper, for instance, boasts a receptor of exquisite sensitivity to “invisible” infrared light. Some insects have receptors for ultraviolet light and for pheromones (chemical sex attractants and aphrodisiacs unique to their own species), thereby also exceeding human sensory capabilities.
Regardless of their specific anatomical form, all sense organs share basic features:
Britannica QuizFacts You Should Know: The Human Body Quiz(1) All sense organs contain receptor cells that are specifically sensitive to one class of stimulus energies, usually within a restricted range of intensity. Such selectivity means that each receptor has its own “adequate” or proper or normal stimulus, as, for example, light is the adequate stimulus for vision. However, other energies (“inadequate” stimuli) can also activate the receptor if they are sufficiently intense. Thus, one may “see” pressure when, for example, the thumb is placed on a closed eye and one sees a bright spot (phosphene) in the visual field at a position opposite the touched place.
(2) The sensitive mechanism for each modality is often localized in the body at a receiving membrane or surface (such as the retina of the eye) where transducer neurons (sensory cells) are located. Often the sensory organ incorporates accessory structures to guide the stimulating energy to the receptor cells; thus, the normally transparent cornea and lens within the eye focus light on the retinal sensory neurons. Retinal nerve cells themselves are more or less shielded from nonvisual sources of energy by the surrounding structure of the eye.
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(3) The primary transducers or sensory cells in any receptor structure normally connect (synapse) with secondary, ingoing (afferent) nerve cells that carry the nerve impulse. In some receptors, such as the skin, the individual primary cells possess threadlike structures (axons) that may be yards long, winding from just beneath the skin surface through subcutaneous tissues until they reach the spinal cord. Here, each axon from the skin terminates and synapses with the next (second-order) neuron in the chain. By contrast, each primary receptor cell in the eye has a very short axon that is contained entirely in the retina, which synapses with a network of several types of second-order neurons called internuncial cells, which, in turn, synapse with third-order neurons called bipolar cells—all still in the retina. The bipolar-cell axons extend afferently beyond the retina, leaving the eyeball to form the optic nerve, which enters the brain to make further synaptic connections. If this visual system is considered as a whole, the retina may be said to be an extended part of the brain on which light can directly fall.
From such afferent nerves, still higher-order neurons make increasingly complex connections with anatomically separate pathways of the brainstem and deeper parts of the brain (e.g., the thalamus) that eventually end in specific receiving areas in the cerebral cortex (the convoluted outer shell of the brain). Different sensory receiving areas are localized in particular regions of the cortex—e.g., occipital lobes in the back of the brain for vision, temporal lobes on the sides for hearing, and parietal lobes toward the top of the brain for tactile function.
