Senses of the Tongue
What are the 5 tastes of the tongue?
Salty, sour, sweet, bitter, and umami
What is the difference between decibels/hertz?
A decibel is the intensity of sound and is perceived as loudness.
A Hertz is the frequency of sound and is perceived as pitch.
How do the retina and lens work together?
The retina turns light into a neural signal through transduction. The lens fine tunes the images on the retina which is the light passing through the cornea.
Melatonin
Hormone that is secreted by the pineal gland at night and signaling day length to the brain
Inferior colliculi
primary auditory centers of the midbrain
What are the three forms of papillae?
circumvallate, foliate, and fungiform papillae
What is another word for an eardrum? What is the definition of an eardrum?
Tympanic membrane: it is at the end of the ear canal that captures vibrations in the air
What is myopia?
(nearsightedness) vision problem which is the difficulty to see distant objects
Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)
a small region of the hypothalamus above the optic chiasm that is the location of a circadian clock, light information is sent directly there
REM sleep
(paradoxical sleep) characterized by small-amplitude, fast EEG waves, no postural tension, and rapid eye movements
What is the lifespan of a taste cell? What else can they process?
The lifespan of taste cells is 10-14 days, as they are constantly being replaced. Taste cells can also possess sensory cells for pain, touch, and temperature.
What is an implantable device that can be used to detect sounds and stimulate nerves in different regions of the cochlea?
Cochlear implants
What type of light can birds, bees, and many fish detect that humans cannot?
Ultraviolet
What is the difference between nightmares and night terrors?
Nightmares are long frightening dreams that wakes sleeper from REM sleep. Night terror is waking up from stage 3 sleep with intense fear and autonomic activation
What is sleep paralysis?
state during the transition to or from sleep where the ability to move or talk is temporarily lost
What is the Taste Map of the Tongue?
Myth that each taste is preceieved mainly in one region. FALSE! All the five basic taste can be preceived anywhere on the tongue where there are taste receptors (Chandrashekar et. al. 2006)
"Chemicals in the oral cavity are detected by taste receptor cells which are grouped together in taste buds found in epithelial specializations called papillae" (Spence 2022)
What are the three parallel canals that are in the cochlea?
(1) the scala vestibuli (2) the scala media (3) the scala tympani
How does hyper polarization work in response to light?
When light hits the photopigment in the photoreceptor, a cascade of chemical reactions that hyper-polarize the cell causes the cell to release LESS neurotransmitter onto bipolar cells.
What are the cycles of sleep?
Scotopic vs. photopic system
Photopic: high levels of light, sensitive to color, and involves the cones
What chemicals/receptors are in charge for each of the 5 tastes?
Salty- NaCl (Sodium & Chloride), Sour- H+(Hydrogen Ions), Sweet - T1R&T2R receptors that are made of simpler proteins that detect sweet tastants), Bitter- T2R (receptor proteins that function as bitter receptors), Umami- T1R1&T1R3 sweet receptors that responds to dietary amino acids)
What is the mechanisms of transduction?
Our bodies translate air pressure into neural signals (hair cells that have neurotransmitters). Hair cells communicate in the same way neurons do. They psychicallt move and the ion channels open, which then translate the psychical stimulas into a neural signal that travels through the ear for further processing.
What are the visual pathways of the human brain?
(1) photoreceptors send information about light to bipolar cells which send information about light to the ganglion cells whose axons make up the optic nerve which crosses at the optic chiasm (2) projects to the LGN in the thalamus (3) projects to primary visual cortex- V1 (4) extra striate cortices - V2-V5
What is the molecular clock?
(1) proteins bind together (2) transcription is promoted- reading the code of the gene (3) translation which is making new proteins, new proteins inhibit the dimer when they bind together (4) new proteins degrade
What are the biological functions of sleep?
(1) energy conservation: use less energy when we are asleep (2) niche adaptation: specialization for either nighttime or daytime activity (3) body & brain restoration: rebuilding or restoration of materials used during waking (4) memory consolidation: sleep helps with memory formation in many domains, not just verbal