CNS 2

1. Signal Transduction

- Process of conversion from environmental energy to electrical signals

(graded and then action potential)

Figure 4-2 Conversion of receptor potential into action potentials.

(a) Specialized afferent ending as sensory receptor. Local current flow between a
depolarized receptor ending undergoing a receptor potential and the adjacent
region initiates an action potential in the afferent fibre by opening voltage-gated
Na+ channels. (b) Separate receptor cell as sensory receptor. The depolarized
receptor cell undergoing a receptor potential release a neurotransmitter that
binds with chemically gated channels in the afferent fibre ending. This binding
leads to a depolarization that opens voltage-gated Na+ channels, initiating an
action potential in the afferent fibre.
2. Explain the concept of adaptation: define phasic and tonic receptors

Concept of adaptation
• Phenomena where receptors dimmish the extent of their depolarization
despite sustained stimulus strength
• Receptors may adapt slowly or rapidly to sustain stimulation
o frequency of action potentials generated in the afferent neuron
decreases

Tonic receptors
• Do not adapt at all or adapt slowly
o Muscle stretch receptors
o Joint proprioceptors
• Maintains information about a stimulus

Phasic receptors
• Rapidly adapting receptors
o Tactile receptors in skin

Crude touch (or non-discriminative touch)

• a sensory modality which allows the subject to sense that something has
touched them, without being able to localize where they were touched
(contrasting "fine touch").
• Its fibers are carried in the spinothalamic tract.

Fine touch, (or discriminative touch)

• a sensory modality which allows a subject to sense and localize touch.
• Its fibers are carried in the dorsal column
2. Classify the sensory receptors according to their location and function

• Proprioceptor
o Responds to position and movement
o Senses information from internal structures (muscle)

• Photoreceptors
o Responsive to visible wavelengths of light

• Mechanoreceptors
o Sensitive to mechanical energy
o Different forms but are sensitive to
 Touch, pressure, stretch, vibration, acceleration

• Thermoreceptors
o Sensitive to heat and cold
o free nerve endings with membrane channels that change their
permeability (and therefore axon firing rates) across specific
temperature ranges

• Osmoreceptor
o Detect changes in concentration of solutes in body fluids and
resultant changes in osmotic activity

• Chemoreceptors
o Sensitive to specific chemicals
o Include receptors for smell and taste and receptors that detect O2
and CO2 concentrations in blood and chemical content of digestive
tract
3. Describe the properties and location of nociceptors (pain detecting
nerves)
• Nociceptors do not adapt to sustained or repetitive stimulation
– Modulated by prostaglandins
– Three categories of nociceptors:

• Mechanical nociceptors
– Respond to mechanical damage such as cutting, crushing,
or pinching

• Thermal nociceptors
– Respond to temperature extremes

• Chemical nociceptors
– Respond many kinds of irritating chemicals

4. Somatic pain vs visceral pain

Somatic pain
• Comes from the skin, muscle, and soft tissues

Visceral pain
• Pain from internal organs

5. concept of referred pain

: Pain perceived at a location other than the site of the painful stimulus

6. Describe the functions of proprioceptors

• “Receptor for self”

• Detects motion (or movement) and position of the body through a stimulus
produced
• Relays information to the brain when a body part is moving
7. Stimuli and Receptor Permeability

• Stimulus alters receptor’s ion permeability, which leads to graded receptor

potential
– This change in membrane permeability can lead to the influx of
sodium ions
• This produces receptor (generator) potentials
– The magnitude of the receptor potential represents the intensity of
the stimulus
• A receptor potential of sufficient magnitude can produce an
action potential
– This action potential is propagated along an afferent
fibre to the CNS

8. Fast and Slow Afferent Pain Fibers

Pain impulses from nociceptors are transmitted to the CNS via one of two rtpes
of afferent fibers:

• A-delta fibers: largest and fastest

– Myelinated
– Fast pain cold, warmth, mechanical stimuli
– Sharp, stabbing or acute
– Free nerve ending
• C-fibers: smallest and slowest
– Unmyelinated
– Slow pain, heat, cold, and mechanical stimuli at much slower rate
– Burning, aching, throbbing
– Free nerve ending
9. Ascending pathway
Primary afferent pain fibers synapse with specific second order interneurons in
the dorsal horn of the spinal cord.
- In response to stimulus induced AP, afferent pain fibers release
neurotransmitters that influences next neurons in line
o Substance P and Glutamate

– Substance P
• Activates ascending pathways from the spinal cord that
transmit nociceptive signals to higher levels for further
processing; associated with slow pain
• Ascending pathway have different destinations in the
cortex, thalamus and reticular formation
– Glutamate
• Major excitatory neurotransmitter associated with fast pain
 (a) Substance P pain pathway.
When activated by a stimulus, some afferent pain pathways release
substance P, which activates ascending pain pathways that provide
various brain regions with input for processing different aspects of the
painful experience.

(b) Analgesic pathway.

Endogenous opiates released from descending analgesic (pain-relieving)
pathways bind with opiate receptors at the synaptic knob of the afferent
pain fibre. This binding inhibits the release of substance P, thereby
blocking transmission of pain impulses along the ascending pain
pathways.

10. PNS to CNS

• First-order sensory neuron

– Afferent neuron with its peripheral receptor that first detects stimulus
• Second-order sensory neuron
– Either in spinal cord or medulla
– Synapses with third-order neuron
• Third-order sensory neuron
– Located in thalamus
11. Spinothalamic tract vs dorsal column pathway

Spinothalamic tract (pain)

- Pain, crude touch, temperature sensory information synapses in dorsal horn in spinal
cord
- Efferent axon from dorsal horn cross midline and project up the spinal cord, through the
brainstem, into the thalamus then to cerebral cortex

Dorsal column pathway (proprioception)

- Touch and pressure information enters spinal cord (doesn’t synapse right away) and
ascends up to brainstem
- At brainstem, synapses with second order neuron which then crosses the midline and
projects to thalamus, then to cerebral cortex

Difference
- Position of the second order neuron (shown in blue)

12. Process of sensation at the perceptual level

i. our response range is limited

ii. information channels to our brains are not high-fidelity recorders
iii. cerebral cortex manipulates the data