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How do we Stay Balanced? The Vestibular System
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Vestibular System (Balance)
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Head accelerates this way Cupula gets pushed Fluid goes this way
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Vestibular System (Balance) Head accelerates this way Cupula gets pushed Fluid goes this way
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Vestibular System (Balance) movement of the cupula is detected by hair cells hair cells in the vestibular system are more sensitive than hair cells on the basilar membrane!
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Vestibular, Visual, and Proprioceptive Systems Work Together Try standing on one foot with your eyes closed!
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Fun Facts about The Vestibular System Seasickness arises when the vestibular system and the visual system send conflicting information
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Fun Facts about The Vestibular System Seasickness arises when the vestibular system and the visual system send conflicting information People can be knocked down by moving walls!
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Fun Facts about The Vestibular System Seasickness arises when the vestibular system and the visual system send conflicting information People can be knocked down by moving walls! Alcohol causes the spins by (among other things) changing the density of the fluid in the semicircular canals
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Sensory Systems: Touch, temperature, taste, smell
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There are a variety of touch receptors
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Touch receptors send signals to the somatosensory cortex via long axons in the spinal cord Signals are sent to the opposite (contralateral) side of the brain
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Wilder Penfield - Montreal Neurological Institue - 1940’s Found somatotopic map by stimulating brain during surgery The Homunculus
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Two classes of thermoreceptors: warm and cold Thermoception
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Taste (Gustation) Taste buds contain chemical receptors
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Taste What are the various “tastes”?
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Multi-dimensional scaling reveals several “varieties” of tastes: –sweet –salt –bitter –sour –umami (MSG) - possibly a protein receptor –there may also be a lipid (fat) receptor Taste
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Olfactory bulb receives input from olfactory receptors which contact mucus in nasal cavity Smell
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There are thousands of different receptors for different kinds of molecules Smell
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Olfactory receptors use a “lock-and-key” mechanism - only specific molecules will bind with a given receptor Smell Receptor Odor Molecules
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Odor recognition is excellent in humans but odor identification (naming) is very poor Women tend to be (slightly) better than men at naming smells Smell
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Smell is strongly influenced by “top- down” processes such as what you are expecting to smell Smell
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