The animal in the image below has 22 spikey appendages radiating from its nose that help it search through soil for small insects to eat. This star organ is highly sensitive to touch and is heavily innervated. Two-point discrimination experiments reveal that some of the appendages have a denser array of sensory receptors than any other appendages. If you were able to examine the somatosensory cortex of this animal, what organization might you expect to see? In your response, make comparisons to sensory systems in other animals.

The animal in the image below has 22 spikey appendages radiating from its nose that help it search through soil for small insects to eat. This star organ is highly sensitive to touch and is heavily innervated. Two-point discrimination experiments reveal that some of the appendages have a denser array of sensory receptors than any other appendages. If you were able to examine the somatosensory cortex of this animal, what organization might you expect to see? In your response, make comparisons to sensory systems in other animals.

Human Physiology: From Cells to Systems (MindTap Course List)

9th Edition

ISBN:9781285866932

Author:Lauralee Sherwood

Publisher:Lauralee Sherwood

Chapter6: The Peripheral Nervous System: Afferent Division; Special Senses

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 13RE

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In the process of sensory coding Recruitment of additional neurons occurs with a weak stimulus in order to make the stimulus stronger. The larger the receptive field of a sensory receptor, the greater the expected acuity and the more accurate the two-point discrimination. Lateral inhibition of neighboring receptors resulting in a relative reduction of action potentials in the neighboring second order neurons would be expected to increase acuity. A receptor potential that remains suprathreshold into the absolute refractory period will result in additional action potentials.
You are recording from a touch receptor in skin. When you stimulate a spot on the skin, the receptor fires continuously until you stop the skin stimulation. Which of the following pieces of information would you need to be able to identify what kind of receptor this is? Group of answer choices Whether the area of skin that can activate this receptor is big or small Whether the receptor sends its output to the somatosensory cortex or not You don’t need any more information; you can identify this receptor just from the information provided Whether the touch receptor is connected to an Alpha-Delta fiber or a C-fiber
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What are the similarities in how receptive fields are represented by the nervous system? What advantage does this give us with respect to senses?
This image shows how cells in the medial superior olive could hypothetically calculate interaural time differences. If cell A receives a signal from the left and right cochlea simultaneously, where is this sound likely to be coming from? Given your answer to the first part of this question, do you expect there to be greater excitation in the left or right lateral superior olive? 0 degrees; no difference in excitation between the right and left lateral superior olive 180 degrees; greater excitation in the right lateral superior olive -90 degrees; greater excitation in the left lateral superior olive 90 degrees; greater excitation in the right lateral superior olive
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