Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction To Special Senses Web Quest
Introduction To Special Senses Web Quest
3. How can one kind of cell enable us to discriminate among so many different
odors?
The mammalian genome contains a family of about 1000 related but separate
genes encoding different odor receptors.
The sense of smell allows one to anticipate and distinguish the odors. Base on
the emotions evoked by various types of odors they are classified as positive,
negative, or neutral. Smell receptor are chemical receptors and telereceptors.
Sufficient stimuli are odor molecules scattered in the air.
The taste bud are involved in detecting the five elements of taste perception, and these
are salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami. Taste buds have very sensitive microscopic
hairs called microvilli. Those tiny hairs send messages to the brain about how
something tastes, so you know if it’s sweet, sour, bitter, or salty. Taste bud receive the
chemical stimulus through complex transduction schemes and synaptic activation of
neurons, stimulus information is sent to the brain by peripheral neurons.
3. Approximately, how many taste buds does a tongue have?
Your tongue has between 2,000 and 4,000 taste buds. The average adult has between
2,000 to 4,000 taste buds in total. The sensory cells in the taste buds responsible for
how we perceive taste renew themselves every week.
4. Sketch a picture of a tongue and label the primary taste sensations.
6. How many taste cells do each taste bud have?
They have numerous sensory cells that are in turn connected to many different
nerve fibers. Each taste bud has between 10 and 50 sensory cells.
Vision
1. Sketch an eyeball and label the important parts.
3. What is a cataract?
A cataract is a dense, cloudy area that forms in the lens of the eye. It develops slowly
and eventually interferes with your vision. You might end up with cataracts in both eyes,
but they usually don’t form at the same time.
4. Distinguish between rods and cones.
Rods are responsible for vision at low light levels. They do not mediate color vision and
have a low spatial acuity. Cones are active at higher light levels, are capable of color
vision and are responsible for high spatial acuity. The central fovea is populated
exclusively by cones.
5. How is color-blindness inherited?
The most common kinds of color blindness are genetic, meaning they’re passed down
from parents. If your color blindness is genetic, your color vision will not get any better
or worse over time.
Hearing
1. What is the pinna?
The pinna is the only visible part of the ear with its special helical shape. It is the first
part of the ear that reacts with sound.
2. Sketch an ear and label the main parts.