MCELLBI 32 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Endolymph, Thermoreceptor, Receptive Field

• School: Berkeley
• Department: Molecular And Cell Biology
• Course: MCELLBI 32
• Professor: Robin Ball

Document Summary

Electrical signal causes release of neurotransmitter (chemical signal) onto other cells. Chemical signal from another cell can cause electrical signal. Physical stimulus-->receptor---sensory transduction--> change charge in neuron (action potential)-->cns. Sensory transduction: conversion of physical energy (light, sound, pressure) into a change of electrical activity. Sensory receptors are grouped according to the type of stimulus they transduce. Each sense sends signals to a specific area of the brain in cerebral cortex. ->olfactory cortex, auditory cortex, vestibular cortex, somatosensory cortex, gustatory cortex (taste), visual cortex. ->fovea has the highest concentration of photoreceptors (region in retina) ->blind spot=where optic nerve and blood vessels leave eye, no photoreceptors present. ->measuring blind spot needs object size, object distance, image distance, and image size hot to find blind spot (image size) :image size/object size=image distance/object distance. ->neurons at center of stimulation area inhibit more lateral neurons. ->measure the minimum volume (sound intensity) necessary to hear a sound at a particular frequency.