Sense Organ PDF
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Defination
An organ of the body which responds to external stimuli by
conveying impulses to the sensory nervous system. It help
to protect the body. The human sense organs contain
receptors that relay information through sensory neurons
to the appropriate places within the nervous system. The
sense organ found in human body are: eye, ear,nose,
tongue and skin.
Types of sense organ
There are mainly five types of sense organ(eye, ear,
tongue, nose and skin) in human body and they may be
classified as based on location , types of stimuli, and their
specialized function.
Eye (Sight)
Sight or vision is the capability of the eye(s) to focus and
detect images of visible light on photoreceptors in the
retina of each eye that generates electrical nerve impulses
for varying colors, hues, and brightness. There are two
types of photoreceptors: rods and cones. Rods are very
sensitive to light, but do not distinguish colors. Cones
distinguish colors, but are less sensitive to dim light. There
is some disagreement as to whether this constitutes one,
two or three senses.The inability to see is called blindness.
Blindness may result from damage to the eyeball,
especially to the retina, damage to the optic nerve that
connects each eye to the brain, and/or from stroke (infarcts
in the brain). Temporary or permanent blindness can be
caused by poisons or medications.
Ear
Hearing
Hearing or audition is the sense of sound perception.
Hearing is all about vibration. Mechanoreceptors turn
motion into electrical nerve pulses, which are located in the
inner ear. Since sound is vibrations propagating through a
medium such as air, the detection of these vibrations, that
is the sense of the hearing, is a mechanical sense
because these vibrations are mechanically conducted from
the eardrum through a series of tiny bones to hair-like
fibers in the inner ear, which detect mechanical motion of
the fibers within a range of about 20 to 20,000 hertz,with
substantial variation between individuals. Hearing at high
frequencies declines with an increase in age. Inability to
hear is called deafness or hearing impairment. Sound can
also be detected as vibrations conducted through the body
by tactition. Lower frequencies than can be heard are
detected this way. Some deaf people are able to determine
direction and location of vibrations picked up through the
feet.
Tongue
Taste (or, the more formal term, gustation; adjectival form:
"gustatory") is one of the traditional five senses. It refers to
the capability to detect the taste of substances such as
food, certain minerals, and poisons, etc. The sense of
taste is often confused with the "sense" of flavor, which is
a combination of taste and smell perception. Flavor
depends on odor, texture, and temperature as well as on
taste. Humans receive tastes through sensory organs
called taste buds, or gustatory calyculi, concentrated on
the upper surface of the tongue. There are five basic
tastes: sweet, bitter, sour, salty and umami. Other tastes
such as calcium and free fatty acids may be other basic
tastes but have yet to receive widespread acceptance.
Skin
Smell or olfaction is the other "chemical" sense. Unlike
taste, there are hundreds of olfactory receptors (388
according to one source, each binding to a particular
molecular feature. Odor molecules possess a variety of
features and, thus, excite specific receptors more or less
strongly. This combination of excitatory signals from
different receptors makes up what we perceive as the
molecule's smell. In the brain, olfaction is processed by the
olfactory system. Olfactory receptor neurons in the nose
differ from most other neurons in that they die and
regenerate on a regular basis. The inability to smell is
called anosmia. Some neurons in the nose are specialized
to detect pheromones.
Skin
Touch or somatosensory, also called tactition or
mechanoreception, is a perception resulting from activation
of neural receptors, generally in the skin including hair
follicles, but also in the tongue, throat, and mucosa. A
variety of pressure receptors respond to variations in
pressure (firm, brushing, sustained, etc.). The touch sense
of itching caused by insect bites or allergies involves
special itch-specific neurons in the skin and spinal cord.
The loss or impairment of the ability to feel anything
touched is called tactile anesthesia. Paresthesia is a
sensation of tingling, pricking, or numbness of the skin that
may result from nerve damage and may be permanent or
temporary.
