Back to AI Flashcard MakerPsychology /Psychology - Chapter 4 Smell and Taste Part 2
Psychology - Chapter 4 Smell and Taste Part 2
This deck covers key concepts related to the human senses of smell and taste, as well as the somatosensory and vestibular systems. It includes definitions, mechanisms, and pathways involved in sensory perception and processing.
Loss of smell and taste can occur how?
As part of normal aging, disease, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, olfaction disorders.
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Key Terms
Term
Definition
Loss of smell and taste can occur how?
As part of normal aging, disease, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, olfaction disorders.
What is the somatosensory system?
The system we use for touch and pain.
What is proprioception?
Also called the kinesthetic sense. This is the sense of body position.
What is the vestibular sense?
Our sense of equilibrium or balance.
What are the different stimuli that activate the somatosensory system?
Stimuli applied to the skin such as light touch or deep pressure, hot or cold temperature, or chemical or mechanical injury that produces pain.
What is referred pain?
Damage to internal organs which causes pain in a different location. Like pain in the left arm during a heart attack.
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
Loss of smell and taste can occur how? | As part of normal aging, disease, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, olfaction disorders. |
What is the somatosensory system? | The system we use for touch and pain. |
What is proprioception? | Also called the kinesthetic sense. This is the sense of body position. |
What is the vestibular sense? | Our sense of equilibrium or balance. |
What are the different stimuli that activate the somatosensory system? | Stimuli applied to the skin such as light touch or deep pressure, hot or cold temperature, or chemical or mechanical injury that produces pain. |
What is referred pain? | Damage to internal organs which causes pain in a different location. Like pain in the left arm during a heart attack. |
What are mechanoreceptors? | We sense light touch and pressure with mechanoreceptors which are specialized nerve endings located on the ends of sensory nerves in the skin. |
What are free nerve endings? | Far more plentiful than specialized nerve endings and what we use to sense touch, temperature and especially pain. |
Where is the greatest concentration of nerve endings found? The least? | Most in the fingertips, least in the middle back. |
Before entering the spinal cord, where does information about body touch, temperature and painful stimuli travel? | In our somatic nerves. |
Which travels faster, pain information or touch information? | Touch |
What is the withdrawal reflex? | Local spinal reflex that causes hand to withdraw from painful stimulus. |
After activating spinal reflexes, where does touch and pain information travel? | Upward through parts of the brain stem and thalamus to reach the somatosensory cortex. Additional cortical areas are active during the localization of touch information, such as association areas of the parietal lobe. |
What is a threshold for pain-producing stimulus? | Point at which we perceive it as painful. |
Why does pain have a large emotional component? | That's because information goes partly to the somatosensory cortex and partly to limbic centres in the brain stem and forebrain. |
What is the gate-control model? | Pain under emotional circumstances is blocked from consciousness because neural mechanisms in the spinal cord function as a 'gate', controlling the flow of sensory input to the CNS. |
What is the phantom limb illusion? | Pain or discomfort in the missing limb of people with amputated limbs. |
What is pain insensitivity? | Disorders that impair the ability to sense pain. |
What are proprioceptors? | Use to sense muscle stretch and force. |
What are the two kinds of proprioceptors? | Stretch receptors embedded in our muscles and force detectors embedded in our muscle tendons. |
Where does proprioceptive information go? | Enters the spinal cord, travels upward through the brain stem and thalamus to reach the somatosensory and motor cortexes. |
In addition to the cochlea, what does the inner ear contain? | Semicircular canals. |
What are semicircular canals? | Filled with fluid, sense equilibrium and help us maintain our balance. |
Where does vestibular information travel? | Reaches part of the bran stem that controls eye muscles and triggers reflexes that coordinate eye and head movements. Also travels to the cerebellum which controls bodily responses that enable us to catch our balance when we're falling. |
What is the phantom limb illusion? | Pain or discomfort in the missing limb of people with amputated limbs. |
Do humans detect pheromones? | We don't know. Humans don't have a developed vomeronasal organ, we may detect them through nerve zero. |