BIO MINI QUIZ 160926 Study notes

Sensory receptors:
- Detect changes, modify neurons or epithelial cells exist singly or in groups
- Specialized neurons detect light, heat, pressure, and chemicals
- Five functions:
o Reception
 Energy absorption from stimulus
o Transduction
 Conversion of stimulus energy to change in membrane potential of
receptor cell, depolarization of membrane
o Amplification
 Synapsing, strengthening of stimulus energy
o Transmission
 Impulses travel to CNS, action potential
o Integration
 Processing of information through summation

Sensory adaption: - a type of integration by reception cells – a decrease in responsiveness

during continued stimulation (no longer noticing a ticking clock)

Types of receptors:
- Photoreceptors for light
- Chemoreceptors for chemicals
o Osmoregulators in hypothalamus -> solute concentration of blood and stimulate
thirst when osmolarity increases
o Gustatory receptors in taste buds
o Olfactory receptors in smell
Pressure, touch, stretch, motion and sound
- Bending/stretching of plasma membrane for increased permeability
- Hair cells in inner ear bend, open sodium channels, threshold, Action Potentials,
hearing or balance info
- Proprioceptors detect body position and provide info about body movement
- Mechanoreceptors for sound
o Nociceptors detect pain – prostaglandins increase pain by sensitizing receptors
and lowering threshold, aspirin reduces pain by inhibiting prostaglandin
synthesis
- Thermoreceptors for heat
Protection:
- Eyelids shut out light, protect eyes from flying objects
- CONJUCTIVA – transparent membrane seals eye from bacteria
- LACRIMAL GLANDS – tears, contains lysozymes that kill bacteria

Eye structure:
External:
- Sclera – white and tough fibrous layer
- Cornea – transparent part of sclera at front of eye through which light enters

Intermediate
- Choroid – absorbs stray light rays from cornea onto retina, also contains blood vessels
that nourish the eye
- Iris – controls how much light enters
o Adjusts size of pupil based on light conditions – adaptation
 To keep light out, circular constricts and radial relaxes
 To let light in, radial constricts and circular relaxes
o Contains the pupil (the hole)
- Ciliary Muscle – behind the iris, is part of the choroid
- Suspensory ligaments – connected to the lens

Internal
- Retina – inner layer of the eye, contains photoreceptors (rods and cones)
- Rods – sensitive to light intensity
- Cones – sensitive to different colours
o Fovea Centralis – where cones are packed most densely
- Optic nerve – rods and cones send sensory impulses to brain
- Blind spot – area at the optic nerve that does not contain photoreceptors, thus cannot
detect sight

Divisions
- Lens divides the eye into two chambers
o Anterior – in front of the lens, containing watery and clear aqueous humour
 Maintains shape of the eye, provides oxygen and nutrient to surrounding
cells
 Small amounts are drained out everyday through ducts
 If blocked, pressure can build up, blood vessels will rupture and
causes a lack of oxygen and nutrients -> glaucoma (blindness)
o Posterior – behind lens, containing thick, viscous vitreous humour
 Maintains shape and nourish the cell in posterior part of the eye
o Both humours help to bend light onto retina
Vision
- Three processes:
o Eye forms light image onto retina
o Eye converts image into impulses
o Brain interprets impulses to create the perception we call sight
- When viewing distant object, lens is flat
- When viewing close object, lens are rounded -> accommodation
o Close up object -> ciliary muscles contract (get bigger) -> suspensory ligaments
relax -> lens become more round (pupils also contract to restrict light)
o Far object -> ciliary muscles relax (thinner) -> pulls on suspensory ligaments that
pull on lens -> lens become more flat (pupils also dilate to let in more light)
- Cornea is responsible for 65% of the refraction within the eye
- Lens is responsible for extreme changes

Conditions affecting Cornea and Lens

Cataracts:
- Protein structure of lens degenerates, prevents light from passing through it
o Replacement lens
Astigmatism:
- Inherited condition where cornea is asymmetrical, light is refracted in a way that they
do not meet at correct focal point

Myopia:
- Nearsightedness
- Eyeball too long, light focuses in front of retina
- Concave lenses to fix
Hyperopia:
- Farsightedness
- Eyeball too short, light focuses behind retina
- Convex lenses to fix

Photoreceptors:
- Rods -> more sensitive to light, do not distinguish colour
o Low visual acuity because several rod cells share a connection to optic nerve,
improved detection of small amounts of light (night vision)
- Cones -> need more light to be stimulated, limited function in dark, responsible for
colour detection
o High visual acuity because each cone cell has a single connection to optic nerve,
see separate stimuli

Fovea centralis:
- About 150000 cones per square millimeter
o Most densely packed area of receptors in body
- Rods -> mostly peripheral, and regions absent from the fovea
Three types of cone cells
- 400 to 700 nm in wavelengths
Rods contain rhodopsin
- 500 nanometers

Colour blindness
- Deficiency of cone cells, usually red-green ones

Afterimages
- Positive: bright light, close eyes
- Negative: bright coloured light, cones get exhausted

Rhodopsin
- Visual pigments that absorb light are called rhodopsin

Cones
- Photopsins

Signal Transduction in the Eye – Rods

- In dark, inhibitory neurotransmitter (more action potentials, threshold more likely to be
reached, more depolarized, bipolar cell is depolarized/hyperpolarized
- In the light, rhodopsin is active, retinal component changes, stops vesicles carrying
inhibitory neurotransmitters from inhibiting the bipolar cell to activate

Rods located at back of retina, bipolar in the middle, ganglion cells in the front

Visual interpretation:
- Crossing over at optic chiasm
- Brain creates perception right side up and correct orientation

Binocular vision
- Depth perception is because of binocular vision