K.+Sensory+Organs

 The sound of thunder, the sight of a colorful rainbow, the texture of soft blanket, the smell of a fresh baked apple pie.............You can thank your sensory organs for all these examples of wonderful things most of us are able to enjoy everyday. Our brain is responsible for creating electrochemical nerve impulses that are delivered to our sensory receptors. Then, our receptors change (transduce) different forms of energy into nerve impulses that are conducted in our central nervous system by sensory neurons. So much complexity behind things we do consistently and multiple times a day, huh?  *Typically categorized on the basis of their structure, the stimulus energy they transduce (change), or the nature of their response *Receptors can be specialized neurons, dendritic nerve endings, or specialized epithelial cells associated with sensory nerve endings *Categorized as chemoreceptors, photoreceptors, thermoreceptors, mechanoreceptors, or nociceptors *Proprioceptors include receptors in the joints, tendons and muscles *Sight, heearing, taste, olfaction and equilibrium are categorized together as special senses *There are tonic and phasic receptors as in to duration of their firing in response to a constant stimulus *Tonic receptors continue to fire as long as the stimulus is maintained and monitor the intensity and presence of a stimulus *Phasic receptors respond to stimulus changes and they do not respond to a sustained stimulus
 * SENSORY ORGANS **
 * I. SENSORY RECEPTORS **

*Taste is mediated by taste buds and there are five identifications of taste: salty, sour, sweet, bitter and umami *Salty and sour taste are produced by the movement of hydrogen and sodium ions *Sweet and bitter taste are produced by the binding of molecules to protein receptors that are coupled to G-proteins
 * II. Taste and Smell **

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**III. Ears and Hearing** *The outer ear enables sound waves of a particular frequency and intensity to the tympanic membrane causing vibration *Frequency is measure in hertz and the intensity is measured in decibels *The vibrations cause movement in the middle-ear ossicles which produces the vibrations in the"oval window" of the cochlea

*Our cornea is where light enters the eye and passes through the pupil *It then continues through the lens of the eye which is then projected to the retina in the back of the eye *Myopia is those who have a larger eyeball that is too long and causes image focus to be brought in the front and can be corrected with a concave lens. *Hyperopia have an eyeball that is too short and causes the image to be brought to focus behind the retina *A convex lens can correct hyperopia *Astigmatism (I have!) is when asymmetry of the cornea and/or lens causes uneven refraction of light around 360 degrees of a circle which results in problems with no sharp focus maintaing on the retina 
 * IV. Eyes and Vision **

**APPLICATION:** Vision and eyes are a very important area of senses for me. My grandmother is 89 and an absolutely amazing women. She is currently recovering from a very severe stroke that has paralyzed part of her right side and seriously affected her motor and speech skills. Before her stroke, she has been through a long battle with diabetes. I have been able to learn so much about how diabetes affects ones life. She has had so many changes with insulin regimes and medications. However, the hardest thing for her was that she has lost most of her vision due to diabetes. She can see shapes and shades of gray but, that is about the extent of things for her. She originally had glaucoma and her vision began to decline and decay over time. They believe the macular edema or proliferative diabetic retinopathy is what caused her eye sight loss. She had underwent many procedures and a surgery to try to recover and maintain her loss but, it was unsuccessful. This is something that through help taking care of my wonderful Grandma Ann, has taught me a lot and I can relate a lot of it to my pharmacy work too. She is one tough cookie and I admire her with every bone in my body!

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 * <span style="color: #7575e0; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Sources: **