Vocabulary Special Senses

1. Sensory receptors
An organ having nerve endings (in the skin or viscera or the eye or ear or nose or
mouth) that respond to stimulation.
2. Chemoreceptors
Process by which organisms respond to chemical stimuli in their environments that
depends primarily on the senses of taste and smell.
3. Thermoreceptors
A sensory receptor, or more accurately, the receptive portion of a sensory neuron that codes absolute and
relative changes in temperature, primarily within the innocuous range.
4. Sensation
Our ability to detect and sense the internal and external physical qualities of our environment.
5. Perception
The conscious mental registration of a sensory stimulus.
6. Integration
Incorporation of the genetic material of a virus in to the host genome.
7. Sensory adaptation
A reduction in sensitivity to a stimulus after constant exposure to it.
8. Referred Pain
Pain perceived at a location other than the site of the painful stimulus/origin.
9. Gustation
A sense that develops through the interaction of dissolved molecules with taste buds.
10. Visual accommodation
The adjustment of the optics of the eye to keep an object in focus on the retina as its distance form the eye
varies.
11. Cataracts
A clouding or loss of transparency of the lens in the eye as a result of tissue breakdown and protein
clumping.
12. Conjunctivitis
It's also known as pink eye and is the inflammation of the outermost layer of the white part of the eye and
the inner surface of the eyelid.
13. Glaucoma
A heterogeneous group of diseases that progressively damage the optic nerve, leading to visual
impairment and blindness.
14. Diabetic retinopathy
Disease of the retina caused by diabetes that involves damage to the tiny blood vessels in the back of the
eye.
15. Astigmatism
Refractive error in which the eye does not focus light evenly on the retina, due to a variation in the optical
power of the eye for light coming from different directions.
16. Canal of Schlemm
Circular lymphatic-like vessel in the eye that collects aqueous humor from the anterior chamber and
delivers it into the episcleral blood vessels via aqueous veins.
17. Accommodation
Adjustment or adaptation.
18. Focal point
Central point or locus of an infection in an organism.
19. Photoreceptors
Cells in the retina that respond to light.
20. Blind spot
Small portion of the visual field of each eye that corresponds to the position of the optic disk within the
retina.
21. Emmetropia
The refractive state of an eye in which parallel rays of light entering the eye are focused on the retina,
creating an image that is perceived as crisp and in focus.
22. Myopia
Nearsightedness, the ability to see close objects more clearly that distant objects.
23. Hyperopia
Farsightedness, occurs when a refractive error in which light rays entering the eye are focsed behind the
retina.
24. Rotational equilibrium
Acceleration of the head in rotation, horizontal, and vertical movements.
25. Gravitational equilibrium
The movement of the head with respect to gravity.
26. Otolith
A calcium carbonate structure in the saccule or utricle of the inner ear, specifically in the vestibular
system of vertebrates.
27. Frequency
The measurement of the number of sound vibrations in one second. Measured in hertz.
28. Pitch
Perceptual property of sounds that allows their ordering on a frequency-related scale, or more commonly,
the quality that makes it possible to judge sounds as “higher” or “lower” in the sense associated with
musical melodies.
29. Hertz
Measurement of frequency. One cycle per second.
30. Decibels
The unit of intensity used to describe hearing sensitivity.