1. The Senses EQ: How does our brain receive and interpret sensory information?

2. Taste Begins when chemicals are detected by chemoreceptors on the tongue in the taste buds Four major kinds of taste bud Salty: the body needs a high level of salt for its cellular functions Sweet: body needs sugar for fuel Bitter and Sour: usually meant that the foods were bad for you or dangerous No one taste is located in a particular part of your tongue Children have a better sense of taste than adults which leads to greater food preferences

4. Touch Found in all areas of the skin Near the surface is texture receptors: smooth or bumpy Deeper within the skin are pressure receptors: help with grip Other types of nerves in the skin respond to heat and pain More concentrated in the fingertips than any other part of the body

6. Hearing and Balance Based on waves created by noise Outer ear is shaped like a funnel to capture these sound waves Vibrations pass over the eardrum A tautly stretched skin covering the entrance to the middle ear Sound waves cause this membrane to vibrate Vibration is passed into the liquid filled inner ear Nerves in the inner ear begin to use the vibrations to distinguish sounds, tone and loudness Liquid in the inner ear also helps the body determine its relative position in space

8. Smell Stimulus based on chemicals diffusing through the air Chemicals are then converted to nerve impulses and this is transferred to the brain for interpretation Still being researched 10’s of thousands of scents can be detected by the human brain Believed to be based on perception Females tend to have a better sense of smell than males

10. Vision Light enters the eye through the cornea: transparent layer of cells Helps focus the light The light then passes through the liquid part of the eye: the aqueous humor The light then passes through the pupil which adjusts its size based on the light available The lens then focuses the light onto retina The retina is covered in photoreceptors which change the visual image to nerve impulses Rods: distinguish light Cones: distinguish color The nerve impulse is carried by the optic nerve to the brain for interpretation