The SenSeS

Eugene Flor Lindawan Ulpindo, MSN

 SENSES

Two Types
1. General senses:
- include touch, temperature, pain
- receptors found all over the body
2. Special Senses
- taste, smell (olfaction), sight (vision),
hearing and balance/equilibrium
- dependent on localized organs with
very specialized sensory cells
Figure 9.1
Referred Pain:
 painful sensation in a
region of the body
that is not the actual
source of pain
stimulus
 The afferent nerve
from the superficial
area to which the pain
is referred and the
nerves from the deep
visceral area of actual
damage converge into
the SAME SPINAL
NERVE and project to
the SAME CEREBRAL
CORTEX
 Sensory Receptors
 Large complex organs (eyes, ears)
 Localized clusters of receptors
(taste buds, olfactory epithelium)
SPECIAL SENSES
CHEMICAL SENSES

 OLFACTION (smell)
 GUSTATION (taste)
 Olfaction

Sense of Smell

 contained within an area called the olfactory

epithelium.
 The olfactory epithelium consists of three kinds
of cells: olfactory receptors, supporting
cells, and basal cells.
Figure 9.3a
 Hyposmia

a reduced ability to smell

 Women often have a keener sense of smell

than men do, especially at the time of
ovulation.
 Smoking seriously impairs the sense of smell in
the short term and may cause long-term
damage to olfactory receptors.
 With aging the sense of smell deteriorates.
 Gustation

Sense of Taste

 Sour
 Sweet
 Bitter
 Salty
 umami
Figure 9.4b
 Taste Aversion

people and animals quickly

learn to avoid a food if it upsets
the digestive system
Probably because of taste projections to the
hypothalamus and limbic system, there is a
strong link between taste and pleasant or
unpleasant
emotions. Sweet foods evoke reactions of
pleasure while bitter ones cause expressions of
disgust even in newborn babies
 Vision

Sense of Sight

 More than half the sensory receptors in the

human body are located in the eyes, and a
large part of the cerebral cortex is devoted to
processing visual information
 The SPECIAL SENSES
VISION - use of the
eyes
External Anatomy and
Accessory
Structures
1. Eyelids
2. Eyelashes
3. Meibomian glands
 Modified
sebaceous glands
assoc with eyelids
4. Ciliary Glands
 Modified sweat
glands that lie
5. Conjunctiva
6. Lacrimal
apparatus
7. Extrinsic Eye
Muscles
• Lateral Rectus
• Medial Rectus
• Superior Rectus
• Inferior Rectus
• Superior oblique
• Inferior Oblique
Figure 9.7
 INTERNAL
STRUCTURES 2. On
Ophthalmoscopy
1. Eyeball
Macula Lutea
3 Tunics
1. Fibrous tunic Fovea Centralis
Sclera Optic Disk
Cornea
2. Vascular Tunic 3. Compartments
Choroid Anterior
Ciliary body
Posterior
Iris
3. Nervous Tunic
Retina
Figure 9.9
On Ophthalmoscopy
Ophthalmoscopy
 Compartments of the Eye
 Anterior Compartment

 Posterior Compartment
The Eye as a CAMERA

Iris- allows entry of light

Light is focused by cornea,

lens and humors unto the
retina– converted to AP

Light can bend.

Concave: diverges light

Convex lens: converges

As light converges: the rays

cross and form a FOCAL
POINT

Far vision: lens flattens

Near Vision: rounded lens

 Normal Vision

Left Homonymous
Hemianopsia

Bitemporal Hemianopsia

Right Homonymous
Hemianopsia
Binasal Hemianopsia
The refractive power of the lens is too great for the
relative length of the eye: FP is too near the lens
The relative length of the eye is too short, cornea is too flat, or
the lens has too little refractive power
Detached Retina

may occur due to trauma,

such as a blow to the
head,
in various eye disorders, or
as a result of age-related
degeneration
Age-related Macular Disease

also known as macular

degeneration, is a
degenerative disorder of
the retina in persons 50
years of age and older.
 Presbyopia

With aging, the lens loses

elasticity and thus its ability to
curve to focus on objects that
are close. Therefore, older
people cannot read print at the
same close range as can
 Myopia

nearsightedness, which occurs

when the eyeball is too long
relative to the focusing power of
the cornea and lens, or when
the lens is thicker than normal,
so an image converges in front
of
HEARING AND BALANCE

 The EAR
1. Outer Ear
2. Middle Ear
3. Inner Ear
Outer Ear

1. Pinna

Helix

Lobule

2. Ext. Auditory

Meatus
 Middle Ear
 Air filled cavity within the temporal bone
 Boundaries: L : eardrum

M: 2 openings
oval window
round window
Linked with the throat by the Pharyngotympanic
or Auditory tube
Spanned by the three ossicles
Inner Ear – maze of bony chambers
called osseous or bony labyrinth
surrounding a membranous labyrinth
Bony labyrinth
1. Vestibule
2. Semicircular Canals
3. Cochlea
 Mechanism of Hearing

 Within the cochlear dust is

the ORGAN of Corti
 2 chambers above and
below the Cochlear duct
a. Scala Tympani
b. Scala Vestibuli
 Equilibrium

Static equilibrium refers to the

maintenance of the position of the body
(mainly the head) relative to the force of
gravity.

Dynamic equilibrium is the

maintenance of
body position (mainly the head) in
response to rotational acceleration
 Aging and the Special
Senses
• Most people do not experience any
problems with the senses of smell and
taste until about age 50.
• Several age-related changes occur in
the eyes. (Cataracts and Glaucoma)
• By about age 60, around 25% of
individuals experience a noticeable
hearing loss, especially for higher-
pitched sounds.
 Aging and the Special
Senses
• Most people do not experience any
problems with the senses of smell and
taste until about age 50.
• Several age-related changes occur in
the eyes. (Cataracts and Glaucoma)
• By about age 60, around 25% of
individuals experience a noticeable
hearing loss, especially for higher-
pitched sounds.
 Cataracts

• A common cause of blindness is a loss

of transparency of the lens
 Glaucoma

• The most common cause of blindness

in the United States, afflicting about
2% of the population over age 40

• An abnormally high intraocular

pressure due to a buildup of aqueous
humor within the anterior cavity
 Deafness

• is significant or total hearing loss

1. Sensorineural deafness
 is caused by either impairment of hair cells in
the cochlea or damage of the cochlear branch
of the vestibulocochlear (VIII) nerve
2. Conduction deafness
 is caused by impairment of the external and
middle ear mechanisms for transmitting sounds
to the cochlea
 Ménière’s Disease

• Results from an increased amount of

endolymph that enlarges the
membranous labyrinth
 Fluctuating hearing loss
 Tinnitus
 Vertigo
 Otitis Media

• an acute infection of the middle ear

caused mainly by bacteria and
associated with infections of the nose
and throat