Question

List the major senses in brain. Each sense requires the interpretation of different kinds of information impinging upon us from our environment. In what form(s) does the information do we sense come to us, and what sense organs are stimulated. Describe this in greater detail for two senses.

Answer 1

We humans have five types of sense organs: eyes, ears, tongue, skin, and nose. The main senses are sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. The human sense organs contain receptors that relay information through sensory neurons to the appropriate places within the nervous system. Each sense organ contains different receptors.These sense organs are typically of two types:

• General receptors which are found throughout the body because they are present in skin, visceral organs, muscles, and joints.
• Special receptors include chemoreceptors found in the mouth and nose, photoreceptors found in the eyes, and mechanoreceptors found in the ears.

Olfaction(Smell): The chemoreceptors in the nose will detect any kind of smell, whereas there are four different types of taste buds, and each detects different types of tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. Foods contain chemicals, and when you put something into your mouth, the taste buds in your tongue can detect what chemicals you are ingesting. Each taste bud has a pore at one end with microvilli sticking out of the pore, and sensory nerve fibers attached to the other end. Chemicals from food bind to the microvilli, generating a nerve impulse that is carried through the sensory nerve fibers and eventually to the brain.

Sound: The ear not only is the organ of hearing, but it also is responsible for maintaining equilibrium. To maintain equilibrium, the ear must detect movement. To hear, the ear must respond to mechanical stimulation by sound waves. The outer ear is the external opening to the ear canal. Sound waves are shuttled through the ear canal to the middle ear. The eardrum sets the mechanics in motion. The fluid within the semicircular canals of the inner ear moves, and that movement is ultimately detected by the cilia. When the fluid doesn’t stop moving, you can develop motion sickness. The cilia transmit impulses to the brain about angular and rotational movement, as well as movement through vertical and horizontal planes, which helps your body to keep its balance.