SENSATION

General and Special

Juliet Ver-Bareng, M.D.

Sensation = awareness of the changes in the environment

Perception – subjective interpretation or the understanding of sensation’s meaning

General Senses = somesthetic senses

Special Senses = receptors are located in specific area

Receptors:
•Provide the CNS information about stimulus on type, location, intensity and duration
•Also known as transducers

Transduction = the process in which the stimulus energy is converted or transformed

into an electrical impulse
•Receptor or generator potential is elicited in the sensory nerve

Classification by location:
1. Exteroceptors occur at or near the surface of the skin and are sensitive to stimuli
occurring outside or on the surface of the body to include those for tactile sensations, such as
touch, pain, and temperature, as well as those for vision, hearing, smell, and taste.
2. Interoceptors (visceroceptors) respond to stimuli occurring in the body from visceral
organs and blood vessels and neurons are associated with the autonomic nervous system.
3. Proprioceptors respond to stimuli occurring in skeletal muscles, tendons, ligaments, and
joints which collect information concerning body position and the physical conditions of these
locations.

•Somatic:
- cutaneous: tactile, pain, temperature
- muscle and tendon
- joints
•Visceral:
- cardiac
- respiratory
- gastrointestinal tract
- genitourinary tract
- vascular
 Touch: Meissners
and Merkel

Pressure: Pacinian
and Ruffini

Pain and
Temperature: Free
Nerve ending

Propriocepptors: Muscle spindle Golgi Tendon Organ

Detects Detects
change in change in
length of muscle
muscle tension

Static Position sense

Kinesthesia = dynamic

•Sensory unit – afferent neuron and both its peripheral and central terminals

•Peripheral Receptive Field - sensory area or spatial region

•Peripheral Innervation Density – number of sensory units in a given area
Law of specific nerve energies = mechanism of modality
- the principle that each type of sensory nerve cell normally responds to only one specific
stimulus and gives rise to one sensation
- the sensation evoked will be the same even when artificially stimulated along the nerve
fiber

•Quality = submodality
Touch = according to texture of the surface being touched: rough, smooth, slimy
Temperature = cold or warm
Pain = sharp or burning
Labelled Line Principle – same sensation
experienced regardless where along the
pathway the stimulus is applied

•Intensity of sensation – dependent on the intensity of the stimulus

•Duration of sensation – duration of stimulation

- encoded by changes in the firing frequency of a nerve fiber with the passage of time

Summation – increases intensity of sensation

1. Spatial – greater area stimulated
2. Temporal – greater frequency of stimulation

•Contrast
1. Successive – 2 stimuli applied one after the other leading to an increase in sensitivity to
opposite sensation
2. Simultaneous – 1 presenting stimulus wherein 2 sensations are experienced at the same
time

•After Discharge – duration of sensation outlasts period of stimulation

1. Positive – same character of sensation
2. Negative – opposite sensation

•Affect
1. Pleasant
2. Unpleasant

Localization – pinpoint the exact area of stimulation

- mechanism = Lateral Inhibition

Projection
– the sensation produced by stimulating anywhere along a sensory pathway is equivalent to
stimulation of the receptor
Pain sensation:

Pathway: DCML ALS or Spinothalamic

Ascend before crossing over (decussation) Cross before ascending

•Cortical representation in the somesthetic center in postcenteral gyrus of parietal lobe

•Sensory homunculus – map of sensory areas

Special senses

Sensation Receptor Adequate stimulus Afferent neuron

Vision = sight Rods and Cones Light Optic nerve
Audition = hearing Organ of Corti Sound Cochlear branch of
auditory nerve
Equilibrium = Vestibular Vestibular branch of
balance apparatus: Angular auditory nerve
SCC = crista acceleration/deceleration
ampullaris
Otolith organ = Linear
macula acceleration/deceleratiin
Olfaction = smell Olfactory epithelium Odorants : chemical Olfactory nerve
substance that are
volatile, water soluble
and lipid soluble
Gustation = taste Taste buds Chemical substance in Anterior 2/3 of
solution tongue = Facial
Posterior 1/3 =
Glossopharyngeal
Throat = Vagus

Visual sensations: Rods Cones

1. light perception: dim light (scotopic) bright light (photopic)
2. perception of form +
3. 3-D or stereopsis or depth +
4. movement +
5. Color monochromat trichromat Red, Green, Blue

Light bleach rhodopsin or visual purple, photopigment of rods and transformed to Vitamin A
In the dark, there reconversion of Vitamn A to Rhodopsin/
Vitamin A deficiency = nyctalopia or night blindness

Dark adaptation = shift from bright light to dim light, leading to a decrease in cone sensitivity
and increased sensitivity of rods. Takes about 20 minutes because it takes some to for
reconversion of rhodopsin
Light adaptation = shift from dim light to bright light. Decreased sensitivity of rods and
increased sensitivity of cones. About 8 minutes, bleaching of rhodopsin

Perception of form
1. Far vision
Refraction = bending of light
rays to come into focus at the
Emmetropia 20/20 vision
retina
At distance of 20 ft from the chart (numerator), can
see what a normal person can see at 20 ft
(denominator)
Errors of refraction
a. Myopia = focal point is infront of the retina
due to long eyeball or increased focal power
of the eye. Correction is biconcave lens to
delay convergence of light rays
b. Hyperopia = focal pt behind the retina due to
shirt eyeball. Correction =convex lens
c. Astigmatism = no single focal pt due uneven
curvature of cornea, Correctin cylindrical
lens
2. Near vision: looking at object < 20 ft
To improve vision, accommodation occurs = increasing curvature (diameter) of the lens
By the contraction of ciliary muscles
Triple response of the eye when looking at near objects:
a. Accommodation
b. Miosis = papillary constriction
c. Convergence of eye ball = the focus of the object in the 2 eyes must fall in
corresponding are of the retina
Presbyopia = loss of the power of accommodation

Depth perception = binocular vision

Foci fall in corresponding pointsof the 2 retina

Color vision = primary colors of the eye: red, green and blue, each has cones with pigments

3 cones = trichromat
Absence of cones = monochromat = by rods = able to see black, white and shades of gray

Color blindness = anopsia weakness= anomaly

Color blindness

Visual Pathway:

Audition = HEARING
Adequate stimulus = sound
1. wavelength = determines pitch (Hertz or cycles per minute)
2. amplitude = intensity or loudness (decibels)
Auditory sensations
1. Pitch perception
2. Perception of intensity
3. Sound localization = interaural difference in the time of arrival of sound ans the
intensity of sound

Types of Deafness:
1. Conduction = obstruction of soundwaves from reaching the inner ear
2. Sensorineural = damage of cochlea, auditory nerves, auditory pathway and center

Presbycusis = due to
wear and tear of hair
cells
Tinnitus = ringing of the
ear. Stimulus comes
from inside the inner ear
EAUILIBRIUM:

Dysfunction of the function of the vestiblar apparatus

1. vertigo = sensation of rotation
2. nystagmus =eye rolling
3. nausea and vomiting
OlLFACTION Odorant 1. Volatile 2. Water soluble 3. Lipid soluble
Anosmia = loss of sense of smell

GUSTATION:
Taste bud

Flavor = combination of taste, smell texture, temperature of food

Capsaisin = chemical present in spicy food like pepper
Ageusia = loss of sense of taste