AESTHESIOLOGY

1. Chemical senses
a) Taste/Gustation
b) Smell/olfaction
c) Common chemical senses
2. Touch - Receptors
3. Pain - Nerve endings
4. Hearing ----- Ear
5. Vision ----- Eye
 Chemical senses
The animal body has a network of chemical receptors-
chemoreceptors.
All cell membranes responds to chemical stimulation. Some
cells have become specialized & respond only to chemical
stimuli from external environment. Where as others
responds to internal chemical stimulation.
Fish have chemo receptors distributed over the body
surface.
The chemical senses are commonly divided into three classes.
a) Taste/Gustation
b) Smell/olfaction
c) Common chemical senses
 Taste/Gustation
 Taste probably encourages nutritional prudence.
 Taste will stimulate flow of saliva.
 It helps the animal to select food according to its
physiological needs.
 It may help the animal in rejection of toxic
substances.
 Most imp. Function of taste is its effect on
digestive system. Taste stimuli can increase
gastric contractions and reduce intestinal motility
as well as influence the gastric & pancreatic
secretions.
 TASTE
• Taste buds: mostly on tongue
• Two types
– Fungiform papillae (small, on entire surface of tongue)
– Circumvallate papillae (inverted “V” near back of tongue)
• Taste buds of 50-100
epithelial cells each
• Taste receptor cells
(gustatory cells)
• Microvilli through pore,
bathed in saliva
• Disolved molecules
bind & induce receptor
cells to generate
impulses in sensory
nerve fibers
• Types of taste
– Sweet
– Sour
– Salty
– Bitter
A fifth type the water fibres, respond to water
without solute, but its absent in Rat, sheep
& calf. Specific receptors may not exist for
each of these taste types. Some other
species variations are Ex. Cat lacks
receptor for sweat substances while in
bitch its poorly developed.
Distribution of the four primary modalities of
taste over the surface of the tongue

• Bitter at back
• sour along edges
• Sweat at tip
• salt on anterior dorsum
• sour & bitter is also tasted on the
palate.
 Neurophysiology of Taste

Gustatory (taste) pathway to brainstem &

cerebral cortex via two cranial nerves:
– VII (Facial n.) – anterior 2/3 of tongue
– IX (Glossopharyngeal n.) – posterior 1/3
tongue and pharynx
– Vagus - Receptors in Pharynx and larynx
If facial area of somato sensory cortex. are
destroyed in the thalamus or cortex, loss of
taste discrimination occurs
 Olfaction/Smell
Olfaction is characterized by a sensitivity to
volatile substances in extreme dilution.
This fact accounts for its description as
a distance receptor.
It differs from gustatory/taste receptors
as taste receptors require gross
contact with chemical stimulant
• As many as 100,000 unique odors can
be discriminated
• a. 80% of which are noxious
• b. Odors perceived to be noxious are often
deleterious (rotting meat, etc.).
• Olfaction or smell is a major sensory function
for most of animals, while in human beings its
of secondary importance.
• Olfactory receptors are located in the
olfactory epithelium of the nasal cavity,
especially in the mucosa of the nasal
septum and ethmoturbinate region.
 Seven primary odors /olfactory stimulants
are
1. Musky
2. Floral
3. Pepperiminty
4. Etheral
5. Pungent
6. Putrid
7. Camphoraceous
 Smell
• Olfactory Receptor Neurons
– Olfactory Transduction
 Smell
• Olfactory Receptor Neurons
– Olfactory Transduction
Smell
• Central Olfactory Pathways (Cont’d)
Smell
• Central Olfactory Pathways (Cont’d)
 Perception of smell
• Olfactory cells sending axons into the olfactory
bulb to end on dendrites from mitral cells in a
structure called glomerulus.
• Approximately 25,000 axons enter each
glomerulus and synapse with about 25 mitral
cells that in turn send signals into the brain.
• In glomerulus are about 60 tufted cells that
send signals to the brain as well.
• Thin sheet of cells high up in our nasal
cavity
• b. Size of the olfactory epithelium is
proportionate to olfactory acuity
• i. Man has 10 cm2
• ii. Dog has 170 cm2
• iii. Dogs also have 100x a many receptors
per cm2
• C. Olfactory receptors
 Application of Olfaction
• Ruminants as well as dogs have been
observed to employ olfactory signals in the
recognition of their young.

• Audition, rather than olfaction, has proved

critical to the identifications of their young
by domestic fowl.
 Role of Olfaction in Reproduction
Whitten effect (1966): Disruption of estrus
cycle in grouped mice is at once reversed
by arrival of male, even if male is caged to
prevent direct contact.

Bruce effect : Newly mated mice on being

exposed to another male, results in failure
of pregnancy.
 Common chemical senses
Prevalence of common chemical senses in
the lower vertebrates and invertebrates and
they diffuse & relatively unspecialized nature
of the receptors support this contention.
Ex: Irritants such as ammonia and acids,
stimulate the free nerve endings of
numerous surfaces as for example, those in
nasal chambers, mouth and eyelids of
vertebrates.
 Pain and Its Control
Pain and Its Control
A. Nociception
1. Sensory process ---provides signals that trigger
pain
B. Characteristics
Hyperalgesia
Tissue already damaged is much more
sensitive to pain
i. Nociceptors are sensitized by various
substances released by damaged tissue
(protaglandins, histamines, etc.)
 Pain cont….

C. Regulation of pain
1. Pain can be modified by non-painful sensory input (i.e., rub the skin
around a bruise)
a. Gate Theory of Pain-circuit in spinal cord dorsal root
2. Several brain regions can act to suppress pain
a. PAG (periacqueductal gray matter) project to the raphe
(serotonin) that sends axons to the spinal cord (5-HT is inhibitory,
block synaptic activity)
3. Brain chemicals
a. Endorphins
i. Share many opioid properties and bind to opioid receptors in the brain
ii. Opioid receptors are throughout the body, but especially in the brain
and particularly in brain areas that process and modulate
nociceptive information (PA, raphe, and spinal cord)
The Eye is a camera

Eye is a camera!
• Iris - colored annulus with radial muscles
• Pupil - the hole (aperture) whose size is controlled by the iris
• What’s the “film”?
– photoreceptor cells (rods and cones) in the retina
 Accessory structures of the eye
• Eyebrows
• Eyelids or palpebrae
– Upper & lower separated by palpebral fissure
– Corners: medial & lateral canthi
– Eyelashes
Lacrimal apparatus
• Responsible for tears
– The fluid has mucus,
antibodies and lysozyme
• Lacrimal gland in orbit
superolateral to eye
• Tears pass out through
puncta into canaliculi
into sac into
nasolacrimal duct
• Empty into nasal cavity
(sniffles)
The Retina

Cross-section of eye Cross section of retina

Pigmented
epithelium
Ganglion axons
Ganglion cell layer
Bipolar cell layer

Receptor layer
Retina up-close

Light
Two types of light-sensitive receptors

Cones
cone-shaped
less sensitive
operate in high light
color vision

Rods
rod-shaped
highly sensitive
operate at night
gray-scale vision

© Stephen E. Palmer, 2002

Rod / Cone sensitivity

The famous sock-matching problem…

 Electromagnetic Spectrum

Human Luminance Sensitivity Function

http://www.yorku.ca/eye/photopik.htm
 Physiology of Color Vision

Three kinds of cones:

440 530 560 nm.
RELATIVE ABSORBANCE (%)

100
S M L

50

400 450 500 550 600 650

WAVELENGTH (nm.)

• Why are M and L cones so close?

© Stephen E. Palmer, 2002
 Photoreceptors: 2 types

• Rod cells
– More sensitive to light - vision permitted in
dim light but only gray and fuzzy
– Only black and white and not sharp
• Cone cells
– High acuity in bright light
– Color vision
– 3 sub-types: blue, red and green light cones

*Know that rods are for B & W and cones are for color
One of the Ishihara charts for color blindness

Commonly X-linked recessive: 8% males and 0.4% females

If you want more
detail, it’s
fascinating…
 Terminology, remember…

• Optic – refers to the eye

• Otic – refers to the ear

• Getting eyedrops and ear drops mixed up

is probably not a good idea
The Ear Parts of the ear

• Outer (external)
ear
• Middle ear
(ossicles) for
hearing)
• Inner ear
(labyrinth) for
hearing &
equilibrium
 Sound in external acoustic meatus hits
tympanic membrane (eardrum) – it vibrates

Pressure is
equalized by the
pharyngotympanic
tube (AKA
eustachian or
auditory tube)
TM causes ossicles in air filled middle ear to move:
– Malleus (hammer)
These are 3 of the
– Incus (anvil) smallest bones of the body

– Stapes (stirrup)
Ossicles articulate to
form a lever system
that amplifies and
transmits the vibratory
motion of the TM to
fluids of inner ear
cochlea via oval
window
Skeletal muscles of middle ear

When loud, muscles

contract, limiting
vibration and
dampening the noise
 Inner ear = bony “labyrinth” of 3 parts
1. Cochlea - hearing
2. Vestibule - equilibrium
3. Semicircular canals -
In petrous part of
equilibrium the temporal bone

Semicircular canals____

Filled with
perilymph and
endolymph Vestibule___________
fluids
Cochlea_______________________
 Spiral organ of Corti in cochlea contains
receptors for hearing (amplifies sound 100 times)

• Vibration of
stirrup at oval
window starts
traveling
waves
displacing
basilar
membrane
• Sensory hair
cells
stimulated
• Nerve ending
of cochlear
nerve division
of VIII
(Vestibulo-
cochlear n.)
Auditory pathway
 Equilibrium pathway

• Via vestibular nerve branch of VIII

(Vestibulocochlear n.) to the brain
stem
• Only special sense for which most of
the information goes to lower brain
centers
 Vestibule contains
utricle and saccule

• Each contains a macula

• Senses static equilibrium
and linear acceleration of
the head
(not rotational movements)
• Tips of hairs imbedded in
otolithic membrane (calcium
carbonate “stones”)
• Vestibular nerve branches of
VIII (Vestibulocochlear n.)
 Semicircular canals
• Each of the 3 lies in one of the 3 planes of space
• Sense rotational acceleration of the head
• Duct with ampulla housing a small crest: crista ampulla
• Hairs project into jellylike cupula & basilar cells synapse
with fibers of vestibular nerve
VIII Vestibulocochlear nerve
 Receptors
• Sites which transforms a stimuli in to
an impulse

• Receptors are very specific in nerve

and they respond to only specific
stimuli.
 Classification of Receptors

• Exteroceptors : Receptors of warmth, cold,

Touch, Pressure & vision etc.
• Interoceptors : Receptors of taste and
olfactory receptors.
• Proprioceptors : Receptors of Muscle, Joint &
Deep tissue.
 Functional classification
• Chemoreceptors – O2 , CO2

• Electromagnetic receptors - Light

• Thermorecptors - hot & cold

• Mechano receptors -Touch, Pressure etc.