Sensory Receptors

A sensory receptor will code for four aspects of a stimulus:

❌ The receptors send info in different patterns to inform the brain of the intensity of the stimulus

❌ determined by the firing sequences of the receptors

❌ Often determined by the location of the receptor in the body - eg. sound receptors in the ear

❌ Only specific receptors will respond to specific stimuli

❌ Main internal sense receptors in the body

❌ Responsible for taste and homeostasis

❌ - Responsible for mechanical forces

❌ Responsible for sight

❌ Cause pain to protect the body from harm

❌ Detects change in heat

❌ - Found throughout body

❌ - Found on skin and organs

❌ - Found in skin cells

❌ - Found in tongue and back of nose

3 types of mechanoreceptors:

1. ❌ may have either a small or large receptive field.

a. ❌ detect form and roughness

b. ❌ detect stretching.

1. ❌ have a small field and perceive slipping
2. ❌ detect high frequency vibrations

Nociceptors respond to damaging stimuli by sending ❌ to the spinal cord and brain that result in the perception of ❌
- Found in the ❌ and organs
- Only respond to a potentially ❌ situation or to actual damage, and their activation threshold is high.
- Respond to a variety of ❌:
- Extreme ❌
- Excessive ❌ or distortion
- Wide variety of ❌