Chapter 50

Sensory and
Motor
Mechanisms

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Sense and Sensibility
■ The star-nosed mole can detect and eat its prey in
near total darkness in as little as 120 milliseconds
■ It uses the 11 pairs of appendages protruding from
its nose to locate and capture prey through touch
■ Sensory processes convey information about an
animal’s environment to its brain, and muscles and
skeletons carry out movements as instructed by
the brain

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 Mole forages
along tunnel. ■ A sensory receptor converts stimulus
energy into a change in the membrane
potential
■ When a stimulus is received and
processed by the nervous system, a
motor response may be generated

Mole
moves on.
Food absent

OR

Food present Mole bites.

Sensory input Integration Motor output

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 ■ Sensory pathways have four
basic functions in common
– Sensory reception
(receptors or dendrites)
– Transduction (peripheral
neurons)
– Transmission (peripheral
neurons)
– Perception (central nervous
system)

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Sensory Reception and
Transduction
■ A sensory pathway begins with sensory
reception, detection of stimuli by sensory
receptors
■ Sensory receptors are sensory cells or organs
■ They interact with stimuli, both inside and outside
the body

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 Neuronal receptors: Receptor Non-neuronal receptors:
is afferent neuron. Receptor regulates afferent
neuron.
To CNS To CNS

Afferent Afferent
neuron neuron

Receptor
protein Neurotransmitter

Sensory
receptor

Stimulus
leads to
neuro-
transmitter
Stimulus release.
Sensory
receptor
Stimulus
cell
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 ■ Sensory transduction is the conversion of
stimulus energy into a change in the membrane
potential of a sensory receptor
■ This change in membrane potential is called a
receptor potential
■ Receptor potentials are graded potentials; their
magnitude varies with the strength of the stimulus

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Transmission
■ Sensory information travels through the nervous
system as action potentials
■ Sensory receptors may be neurons or non-neuronal
receptors

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 ■ The size of a receptor potential increases with the
intensity of the stimulus
Gentle pressure

Sensory Low frequency of

receptor action potentials per receptor

More pressure

High frequency of action potentials

■ In sensory neurons that spontaneously generate action

potentials at a low rate, a stimulus changes how often an
action potential is produced
 ■ Processing of sensory
information can occur
before, during, and
after transmission of
action potentials to
the central nervous
system (CNS)
■ Integration often
begins as soon as the
information is
received

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Perception
■ Perceptions are the brain’s construction of stimuli
■ Stimuli from different sensory receptors travel as
action potentials along dedicated neural pathways
■ The brain distinguishes stimuli from different
receptors based on the path by which the action
potentials arrive

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Amplification and
Adaptation
■ Amplification is the strengthening of a sensory
signal during transduction
■ Sensory adaptation is a decrease in
responsiveness to continued stimulation

Repeated sounds, like traffic

noise, get filtered out eventually
Types of Sensory
Receptors
■ Based on energy transduced, sensory receptors fall
into five categories
– Mechanoreceptors
– Chemoreceptors
– Electromagnetic receptors
– Thermoreceptors
– Pain receptors

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Mechanoreceptors

■ Mechanoreceptors sense physical deformation

caused by forms of mechanical energy
■ They typically consist of ion channels linked to
structures that end outside the cell, such as “hairs”
(cilia)
■ The mammalian sense of touch relies on
mechanoreceptors that are dendrites of sensory
neurons

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 Gentle pressure Temperature or
and vibration noxious stimuli

Receptors are often

naked dendrites

Epidermis

Dermis

Hypodermis

Nerve
Hair movement Strong pressure
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Chemoreceptors
■ Some chemoreceptors transmit information
about the total solute concentration of a solution
■ Other chemoreceptors respond to individual kinds
of molecules
■ When a stimulus molecule binds to a
chemoreceptor, the chemoreceptor becomes more
or less permeable to ions
■ Osmoreceptors in our brains respond to increasing
osmolarity of the blood, stimulating thirst

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 The antennae of the male silkworm moth have very
sensitive specific chemoreceptors to pheromones

0.1 mm
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Electromagnetic
Receptors
■ Electromagnetic receptors detect
electromagnetic energy such as light, electricity,
and magnetism
■ The platypus has electroreceptors on its bill that
can detect the electric field generated by prey
■ Many animals apparently migrate using Earth’s
magnetic field to orient themselves, like homing
pigeons

Homing pigeons get “lost”

near magnetic anomalies
Beluga whales use Earth’s magnetic field

Eye
Heat-sensing
organ

Rattlesnakes detect infrared radiation (heat)

Thermoreceptors
■ Thermoreceptors detect heat and cold
■ Certain snakes rely on thermoreceptors to detect
infrared radiation emitted by warm prey
■ Mammals have a variety of thermoreceptors, each
specific for a particular temperature range

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Thermorecept
ors
■ Mammalian
thermoreceptors can be
fooled
■ Jalapeno and cayenne
peppers contain a
substance called
capsaicin
■ Receptors that respond
to capsaicin respond to
high temperatures also,
by opening a calcium
channel, giving the
“hot” sensation
■ Cold receptors respond
to menthol from mint
plants, perceiving it as
Pain Receptors
■ In humans, pain receptors, or nociceptors, detect
stimuli that reflect harmful conditions
■ They respond to excess heat, pressure, or chemicals
released from damaged or inflamed tissues
■ Chemicals produced in an animal’s body sometimes
enhance the perception of pain, like prostaglandins
■ Ibuprofen and aspirin work by inhibiting prostaglandin
synthesis

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In hearing and equilibrium,
mechanoreceptors detect moving
fluid or settling particles
■ Hearing and perception of body
equilibrium are related in most
animals
■ For both senses, settling
particles or moving fluid is
detected by mechanoreceptors

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Sensing of Gravity and
Sound in Invertebrates
■ Most invertebrates maintain equilibrium using
mechanoreceptors located in organs called
statocysts
■ Statocysts contain mechanoreceptors that detect
the movement of granules called statoliths
■ Statoliths provide information about the body
position with respect to gravity

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 Insects

Ciliated
receptor
cells

Cilia

Statolith

Sensory
nerve fibers
(axons)

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 ■ Most insects have body hairs that vibrate in
response to sound waves
■ Many also detect sound with localized organs
consisting of a tympanic membrane stretched over
an internal air chamber

Tympanic
membrane

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Hearing
and
Equilibriu
m in
Mammals
■ In most terrestrial
vertebrates,
sensory organs for
hearing and
equilibrium are
closely associated
in
the ear
Serval Cat
 Middle
Outer ear ear Inner ear

Skull Stapes Semicircular

bone Incus canals

Malleus Auditory nerve

to brain

Cochlea
Oval Eustachian
Pinna Auditory window tube
canal Tympanic Round
membrane window

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 A slice through the cochlea

Cochlear Bone Auditory

duct nerve

Vestibular
canal

Tympanic
canal

Organ of Corti

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 The Organ of Corti inside the Cochlea

Tectorial
membrane

To
Basilar Hair cells Axons of auditory
membrane sensory neurons nerve

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 1 µm

Bundled hairs projecting from a single mammalian

hair cell (SEM)

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Hearing
■ Vibrating objects create
pressure waves in the air
■ The ear transduces this
stimulus into nerve impulses
■ To hear sounds, we rely on
hair cells, sensory cells with
cilia that detect motion
■ Moving air reaches the outer
ear and causes vibration of
the tympanic membrane
■ The three bones of the
middle ear transmit the
vibrations to the oval
window

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 ■ When one of the three bones, the stapes, vibrates
again the oval window, it creates pressure waves in
the fluid inside the cochlea
■ Fluid pressure waves push down on the cochlear
duct and basilar membrane
■ The basilar membrane and the attached hair cells
vibrate up and down

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 The bending of hair cells depolarizes the membranes of
mechanoreceptors and sends action potentials to the brain
via the auditory nerve

“Hairs” of
hair cell
More
Neurotrans-
neuro- Less
mitter at
trans- neuro-
synapse
mitter trans-
Sensory mitter –50
–50 –50 Receptor potential
neuron
potential (mV)

potential (mV)

potential (mV)
–70 –70 –70
Membrane

Membrane

Membrane
Action potentials
Signal

Signal

Signal
0 0 0

–70 –70 –70

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Time (sec) Time (sec) Time (sec)

(a) No bending of hairs (b) Bending of hairs in one direction (c) Bending of hairs in other direction

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 ■ The fluid waves dissipate when they strike the
round window at the end of the tympanic canal
■ This damping of sound resets the apparatus for the
next vibrations that arrive
■ The ear captures information about
– Volume, the amplitude of the sound wave
– Pitch, the frequency of the sound wave

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 ■ The cochlea can distinguish pitch because the
basilar membrane is not uniform along its length
■ Each region of the basilar membrane is tuned to a
particular vibration frequency

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 Transmission of sound waves in the cochlea

Axons of Point C
sensory neurons
Apex

Stapes Vestibular
B canal
C
Oval
A window
Basilar
Cochlea membrane

Tympanic Point B
membrane

Displayed Base Tympanic

Round canal
as if cochlea
window
partially
(a) uncoiled Point A
Equilibrium
■ Several organs in the inner ear
detect body movement,
position, and balance
– The utricle and saccule
contain hair cells
projecting into a
gelatinous material
– Embedded in the gel are
granules called otoliths
that allow us to perceive
position relative to gravity
or linear movement
– Three semicircular canals
contain fluid and can
detect angular movement
in any direction

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 Semicircular canals
PERILYMPH
Cupula
Fluid
flow
Vestibule Vestibular
nerve

Hairs
Hair
cell

Nerve
fibers
Utricle
Body movement
Saccule

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The visual receptors of animals
depend on light-absorbing pigments

■ Animals use a diverse set of organs for vision, but

the underlying mechanism for capturing light is the
same, suggesting a common evolutionary origin

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Evolution of Visual
Perception
■ Light detectors in the
animal kingdom range
from simple clusters of
cells that detect direction
and intensity of light to
complex organs that form
images
■ Light detectors all contain
photoreceptors, cells
that contain light-
absorbing pigment
molecules

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Light-Detecting Organs
■ Most invertebrates have a light-detecting organ
■ One of the simplest light-detecting organs is that of
planarians
■ A pair of ocelli called eyespots are located near the
head
■ These allow planarians to move away from light
and seek shaded locations

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 LIGHT

DARK
(a)

Light

Photoreceptor
Ocellus Nerve to
Visual pigment brain
Screening
pigment
Ocellus
(b)

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Compound Eyes

■ Insects, crustaceans, and some

polychaete worms have
compound eyes, which consist
of up to several thousand light
detectors called ommatidia
■ Compound eyes are very
effective at detecting
movement
■ Insects have excellent color
vision, and some can see into
the ultraviolet range

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 (a) The faceted eyes
on the head of a fly

2 mm

Cornea
Axons
Crystalline Lens
cone
(b) Ommatidia

Rhabdom

Photoreceptor

Ommatidium
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Single-Lens Eyes
■ Among invertebrates,
single-lens eyes are
found in some jellies and
polychaete worms, as
well as spiders and
many molluscs
■ They work on a camera-
like principle: The iris
changes the diameter of
the pupil to control how
much light enters
■ The eyes of all
vertebrates have a
single lens

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The Vertebrate Visual
System
■ In vertebrates, the eye detects color and light, but
the brain assembles the information and perceives
the image

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 ■ The human eye is surrounded by several layers
■ Just inside the choroid (a thin, pigmented layer) are
the neurons and photoreceptors of the retina
■ The lens is a transparent disk of protein
■ In front of the lens is the clear and watery aqueous
humor and behind it is the jellylike vitreous humor

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 ■ Light entering the eye strikes the retina, reaching
the rods and cones, two types of photoreceptors
■ The neurons of the retina then relay visual
information to the optic nerve and brain
■ The optic disk, in the retina, lacks photoreceptors
and thus forms a blind spot, where light is not
detected

Rods and Cones

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 Sclera Choroid
Retina
Suspensory
ligament Fovea

Cornea
Iris
Optic
nerve
Pupil

Aqueous
humor
Lens
Central
artery and
vein of
Vitreous humor Optic disk the retina
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 Retina
Photoreceptors
Neurons
Rod Cone

Amacrine Horizontal
Optic cell cell
nerve Ganglion Bipolar Pigmented
fibers cell cell epithelium
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 Rod

Synaptic Cell Outer Disks

terminal body segment

Cone

Rods are more sensitive to light

but do not distinguish colors
Rod Cones provide color vision

Cone

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 Dark Responses Light Responses

Rhodopsin inactive Rhodopsin active

Na+ channels open Na+ channels closed

Rod depolarized Rod hyperpolarized

Glutamate No glutamate
released released

Bipolar cell either Bipolar cell either

depolarized or hyperpolarized or
hyperpolarized, depolarized,
depending on depending on
glutamate receptors glutamate receptors
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Processing of Visual
Information in the Brain
■ The optic nerves meet at the optic chiasm near the
center of the base of the cerebral cortex
■ Sensations from the left visual field of both eyes are
transmitted to the right side of the brain
■ Sensations from the right visual field of both eyes are
transmitted to the left side of the brain

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 Right At least 30% of the cerebral Optic chiasm
visual cortex is active in creating
visual perceptions
field

Right
eye

Left
eye

Left
visual Optic Synapses Primary
field nerve with visual
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interneurons cortex
Color Vision
■ Among vertebrates, most fishes, amphibians, and
reptiles, including birds, have very good color
vision
■ Humans and other primates are among the
minority of mammals with the ability to see color
well
■ Mammals that are nocturnal usually have a high
proportion of rods in the retina and probably see a
pastel world during the day

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 ■ In humans, perception of color is based on three
types of cones, each with a different visual
pigment: red, green, or blue
■ These pigments are called photopsins and are
formed when retinal binds to three distinct opsin
proteins

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The Visual Field

■ The brain processes visual information and controls

what information is captured
■ Focusing occurs by changing the shape of the lens
■ The fovea is the center of the visual field and
contains no rods, but a high density of cones

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 (a) Near vision (accommodation)
Ciliary muscles contract,
pulling border of
choroid toward lens. Choroid
Suspensory ligaments Retina
relax.

Lens becomes thicker

and rounder, focusing
on nearby objects.

(b) Distance vision

Ciliary muscles relax,
and border of choroid
moves away from lens.

Suspensory ligaments
pull against lens.

Lens becomes flatter,

focusing on distant
objects.
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The senses of taste and smell
rely on similar sets of sensory
receptors
■ In terrestrial animals
– Gustation (taste) is dependent on the
detection of chemicals called tastants
– Olfaction (smell) is dependent on the
detection of odorant molecules
■ In aquatic animals there is no distinction between
taste and smell
■ Taste receptors of insects are in sensory hairs
located on feet and in mouthparts

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Taste in Mammals
■ In humans and other mammals, there are five taste
perceptions: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami
(elicited by glutamate)
■ Researchers have identified receptors for all five tastes
■ Experiments show that an individual taste cell expresses
one receptor type and detects one of the five tastes

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 ■ Receptor cells for taste in mammals are modified
epithelial cells organized into taste buds, located in
several areas of the tongue and mouth
■ Most taste buds are associated with projections
called papillae
■ Any region with taste buds can detect any of the five
types of taste

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 Papilla

Papillae
Taste
Tongue buds
(a) The tongue
Sweet
Taste bud
Salty
Bitter
Sour
Taste
Umami pore

Food
Sensory
Sensory molecules
receptor
neuron cells
(b) A taste bud
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Smell in Humans
■ Olfactory receptor cells are neurons that line the upper
portion of the nasal cavity
■ Binding of odorant molecules to receptors triggers a
signal transduction pathway, generating action
potentials
■ Mammals can distinguish thousands of different odors,
humans have 380 of 1200 olfactory receptor genes
■ Although receptors and brain pathways for taste and
smell are independent, the two senses do interact
 Brain

Nasal cavity

Odorants

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 Olfactory bulb
of brain

Bone

Epithelial cell

Olfactory
receptor cell

Cilia

Mucus
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 ■ Sensory perception, transduction, transmission
and perception
■ Receptors can be sensory cells or neurons
■ Mechanoreceptors, chemoreceptors,
electromagnetic receptors, thermoreceptors and
pain receptors
■ Hearing and equilibrium are both in the ear
■ Rods and cones are the like responsive cells in the
retina
■ Taste buds contain cells that detect all 5 tastes,
sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami

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