Anatomy and Physiology of Special Sensory Organs
Sensory organs can be labeled as special sensory structures that permit sight, hearing, odor, and flavor. Sensory structures permitting proprioception, touch, thermal, and pain perception can be classified as more advanced sensory organs. The sensory neurons are trained to find out modifications in the external and internal conditions so that a person's body can react to that change. A stimulus is the first signal that is recognized by any sensory receptor of the body. Stimulus is an impulse generated when there is a change in the surroundings of a person. For example, a heated environment will alert the brain through the thermal sensory organs and generate a reflex accordingly.
Sensory Receptors
The human sensory system is one of the most complex and highly evolved structures, which processes a myriad of incoming messages. This well-coordinated system helps an organism or individual to respond to external stimuli, appropriately. The sensory receptors are an important part of the sensory system. These receptors are specialized epidermal cells that respond to external environmental stimuli. These receptors consist of structural and support cells that form the peripheral unit of the receptor and the neural dendrites which receive and detect the external stimuli.
Describe the general characteristics of the general sense receptors.
Receptors are protein structures that receive external stimuli and transmit the electrical impulses across the neurons of the nervous system. The impulses reach to the brain and spinal cord for the processing of the data.
The general senses are pain, temperature, touch, pressure, vibration, and proprioception and receptors for those sensations are called general sense receptors.
The sense organs specialized to perceive these general senses are, eyes (for seeing), nose (for smelling), ears (for hearing), tongue (for tasting), and skin (for touching or feeling).
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