Lesson Note for Week Seven

Class: Year 12

Topic: SENSE ORGANS

Sense organs are special organs that receive information inform of impulse from
outside and send them through neurons in never fibres to the spinal cord and brain.
They include organs of eye, ear, skin, nose and tongue

The skin as sense organs

The mammalian skin has a very rich supply of sensory receptors. These detect
stimuli that enable us to feel, touch, pressure, pain, cold and heat. The skin can
therefore be considered to be a sense organ, though; it is not specialized in
detecting only one type of stimuli like the other sense organs.

Sensory receptors in the skin are mainly dendritic endings of sensory neurons, that
is they are primary sense cell .Some of these dendrites are finely branched with free
ends. Other are enclosed within capsules.

Sensory receptors are not evenly distributed throughout the skin. Each type is more
concentrated in certain regions which are thus highly sensitive to that particular
stimulus than the other region of the skin. The following are receptors present on
the skin.
(a) MECHANO RECEPTOR: These are receptors that detect mechanical stimuli e.g
sound, touch, gravity, pressure, pain, muscle, contraction and vibration.

(b) CHEMO RECEPTOR: They are the receptors in the skin that detect response to
Chemical stimuli e .g smell, taste, change in concentration of substance nutrient ,
waste product, hormones , gases, irons, etc. in the b & n.

( c)THEROMRECEPTOR: These are receptor that receive internal stimuli e .g cold

heat

(d)PHOTORECEEPTOR- these are receptors that receive electromagnetic stimuli

such as light intensities of and colour.

THE HUMAN OR MAMMALIAN EYE

The eye in man and other animals is the organ for sight. The mammalian eye is
roughly spherical in shape .It is located in a protective cavity in the skull called eye
socket .The eye lashes protect the eye balls from tiny particles .The secretion of the
tear glands washes away dust particles .The eye ball is made up of three layers.

The outer is the sclera or sclerotic coat. It is the white portion of the eye which is
extensively tough and protects all the inner parts. It also protects and maintains the
shape of the eye ball. The sclerotic layer bulges out in front to form a transparent
and convex tissues called cornea.

i) The cornea protects the eye in front

ii) It allows light rays to enter the eye ball.
iii) It helps the lens to bend light rays to form an image on the retina.
The middle layer of the eye is the choroid layer which is dark in colour due to the
presence of its black pigment. It also contains melanin (a black pigment which
enables it to prevent the reflection of light rays within the eye.
Functions
i) The choroid supplies food and oxygen to other parts of the eye especially the
retina.
ii) The black pigment (melanin) helps to absorbs light rays thus prevents internal
reflection within the eye.
Iris; The choroid forms the iris in front of the eye lens .It covers the lens except the
pupil which restricts amount of light entering the eye so that a clear image is
formed on the retina.
The innermost layer is the retina which is very sensitive because it contains
receptive cells or light sensitive cells called rod and cones.
The rods are sensitive to dim light and colourless vision since they are unable to
detect colour. The rod cells contain a sensitive pigment called visual purple or
rhodopsin which contains vitamin -A and protein. Deficiency of vitamin-A in the body
can affect the rods hence causing night blindness.

The cones are sensitive bright light and able to detect colour. They contain a
photochemical substance called iodopsin which is not easily bleached by light .The
yellow spot or fovea is the most sensitive point on the retina where the sharpest
and clearest image can form and also it receives detail information for
transmission to the brain.

The blind spot is a point on the retina where the nerve fibers leave the eye ball to
form the optic nerves ,the point is not sensitive to light since there are no rods or
cones there .The optic nerves carry impulse from the retina to the brain.

The eye lens focuses light unto the retina .It is crystalline and bi-convex in shape .It
is attached to the ciliary muscle by the suspensory ligaments .The suspensory
ligament divides the eye chamber into two parts ;an aqueous humour and vitreous
humour, each chamber is filled with a clear liquid of different density. The space
between the cornea and the lens is filled with thin watery fluid called aqueous
humuor which help to hold cornea together and bend light rays.

The vitreous humuor is a jelly-like transparent substance that filled the interior part
of the eye ball .It helps to keep the shape of the eye ball and also allow for bending
of the light rays. The pupil is a small hole in the iris which help to regulate the
amount of light rays entering the eye..

Mechanism of Seeing
Light rays from an object enters the eye through the cornea which causes the light
rays to be refracted and pass through the aqueous humour which further bends the
light rays before entering the lens through the pupil. The lens further bends the light
rays and focuses them on the retina especially on the yellow spot. The light rays
passes through the vitreous humuor.
.
Further bending of the light rays occurs again. The light rays on reaching the retina
stimulates the rods and cones forms an inverted image on the retina .The inverted
image is smaller in size than the object. Impulses are sent through the optic nerves
the optic lobes of the brain, then to visual cent cerebral hemisphere where the
actual size and colour of the image are interpreted correctly.

ACCOMMDATION OF THE LENS

Accommodation is the ability of the human eye to focus far and nearby object on
the retina It is brought about by the contraction and relaxation of the ciliary muscle.
Accommodation decreases with age.

EYE DEFECTS AND THEIR CORRECTIONS

Myopia or Short sightedness-This is a condition in which parallel rays of light from
a distant object are brought a focus in front of the retina .Therefore the image of a
distant object is formed in front the retina , not on the retina.

Myopia occurs when the eye ball is too long or the lens is too thick. The defect can
corrected by wearing spectacle fitted concave or diverging lenses which diverge the
light rays from a distant object before they enter the eye ,so the eye brings the rays
to a focus in the retina.

Hypermetropia or Long sightedness-In this case ,light rays from near object are
brought to a focus behind the retina .The eye can see distant object. This occurs
when the eye ball is too short or the eye lens being too flat.
This type of eye defect can be corrected by using spectacles fitted with suitable
convex or converging lenses The convex lenses help to converge rays of light before
they enter the eye, so that they come to a focus on the retina.

Astigmatism-It arises from unevenness in the curvature of the cornea which parallel
rays of light from a distant object not be refracted to the degree by different areas
of the cornea which result to a clear image not being formed on the retina
.Astigmatism can be corrected by wearing spectacles made with cylindrical lenses.

Presbyopia-This occurs at old age when the lens and the cilliary muscle of the eye
gradually loses their elasticity.The lens can no longer adjust its shape to focus the
image of clearly on the retina.This is described as a loss in accommodation.The
correction is by wearing spectacle fitted with bi-focal lenses.A bi-focal lens is
combination of a concave and convex lens.

Cataract-This is an eye disease in which the sufferer develop a cloudy area either
in one or the both eyes lenses.It causes partial or complete blindness if not
attended to .The is by surgical operation.

Colour Blindness When one type of colour receptive cone is missing on the retina,
the person concered will not able to distinguish this colour from others.For example
, if the red sensitive cone is lacking, the person will not be able to identify a red
colour.The person will percieve red colour as green.Colour blindness is an inherited
sex-linked character showing up in male child.

Conjuctivitis-The is the inflammation of the conjuctiva. It may be caused by irritants

such as wind or bacterial infection.It is a very contagious infection.Remedy is by the
use right antibiotics prescribed by medical doctor.

Xerophthalmia-This is an eye disease caused by vitamin - A deficiency.It can lead

to blindness.
Glaucoma-This is a bacterial disease that may end up destroying the eyes
completely.
 THE STRUCTURE OF MAMMALIAN EAR
The ear of a mammal such as human ear consists of three main parts ,the outter
ear ,the middle ear and the inner ear.The outter ear consists of the pinnae,the
auditory canal or meatus and the tympanum or eardrum.

The major function of the pinnae is to direct sound waves and the tympanum is the
fist call of vibration.The middie ear is an air-filled cavity containig three small bones
called the ossicles whose function is to transmit and magnify the vibration aready
started by the tympanic membrane.

The outer ossicle is malleus or hammar which is connected to one end of the
eardrum and the second ossicle is the called incus or anvil and the third ossicle is
called stape or stirrup which touches a flexible membrane between the middle
inner ear membrane called oval window.The three tiny bones magnify transmit
sound vibration from eardrum to the oval window.

The middle ear also contain eustachain tube which is an air –filled cavity whose
function is to equalise the air pressure on either side of the eardrum with
atmospheric pressure.The inner ear is made up of complicated and interconnected
canal and sac.The membraneous labbyrinth is made up of three semi-circular
canals; utriculus, sacculus and cochlea.Inside the membraneous is a fluid called
endolymph which filled the utriculus, sacculus, sem-circulus and cochlea.The semi-
circular canals are attached to the utriculus.

They are loop- shape and lie at right angles to one another .They contain sensory
cell and sensory hair cell called otoliths which are concerned with balancing and
maintanace of posture of the body.The cochlea is a coiled tube in the inner ear and
it contains nerve cells sensitive to sound vibration and the function is for
hearing.The cochlea changes sound vibration to nerve impules which will be sent
to the brain through auditory nerve.

FUNCTIONS OF THE EAR

i) Hearingof sound
ii) Awareness of the position of the body thereby maintaining rhe balance of the
body
Mechanism of Hearing
Souns waves entering the pinnae are directed into the auditory canal which make
the eardrum to vibrate .The vibration sets the ossicles into a greater vibration.This
vibration greatly amplified in the middle ear,which the oval window to vibrate far
more than the eardrum because of its smaller size.The in the oval window are
passed on to the endolymph in the cochlea and cause the membrane carrying hair
cells to vibrate .The vibration the hair cell to set up a nerve impulse.The is carried
through the auditory nerve to auditory region of the brain where is interpreted as
sound
Care of the ear
i) The ear should be cleaned regularly with cotton to remove the wax.
ii) The use of sharp object or pointed object while cleaning or scatching the ear
should be avioded.
Iii Aviod loud noise
iv) Consult a doctor for any ear problem.

Organ of Smell (nose)

The organ of smell in human is the olfactory lobe.Several sensory nerve endings are
found in the roof of the nasal cavity.The olfactory lobe functions well when the nose
is wet.Smell receptors are stimulated by chemlcals when particles of volitile
substances dissolve in mucus layer over the smell receptor in the nostril.The
stimulation of the receptor cells give rise to nerve impulses which travel through the
olfactory lobe of the brain.The brain interpretes the kind of smell.
 Ogan of Taste (tongue)
The tongue is the organ responsible for the sense of taste .Sensory cells for taste
are grouped into buds located on the tiny swellings on the exposed surface of the
tongue.They are receptors for chemicals in solution from the food , drinks,medicine
or whatever that is being tasted on the tongue .The taste buds are connected by fine
sensory nerves to the brain which give information about what is tasted.The
tongue is sensitive to four primary tastes namely; sweet,sour,salty and bitter.The
back of the tongue is sensitive to bitter stimulus, the side of the tongue is to salty
and sour stimulus while the tip of the tongue is sensitive to sweet sensation.The
tongue can also detect alkaline taste, texture of food as well as its
temperature.Certain factors which affect taste by tongue include;
i) The state of health of the taster.
ii) The temperature of the food being tasted.
iii) The number of food being chewed at the same time.

QUESTIONS

i) Which part of the tongue is sensitive to bitter taste? A) Tip B) side C) middle D)
back.

ii) The eye balls are attached to the eye socket by ………… muscle.

iii) The most refractive part of the eye ball is A) cornea B)lens C)aqueous humour
D)vitreous humour.

iv) The ear ossicles receive sound vibrations directly from the A)pinna B)eardrum
C)cochlea D) oval window
v) The pressure in the middle ear and external ear is equalized by the A) eardrum B)
malleus and incus C)eustachain tube D) malleus, incus and stape.

vi) Describe the structure of mammalian eye with the aid of diagram

vii) Discribe three defects of eyes and their corrections

viii) Make a well labelled diagram of mammalian ear

ix) Explain the process of balancing