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Sensory System

Function:

objectives
Define Sensory System and its function.
Discuss about Receiving Sensory Impulses.
Discuss about Integrating Sensory Impulses.

Definition of Sensory
System

A sensory system consists of sensory


receptors, neural pathways, and parts of the
brain involved in sensory perception.
The sensory system is responsible for
detecting stimuli from the outside world and
transferring nervous impulses to the correct
portion of the brain or spinal column to allow
the body to react.

Receiving Sensory
Impulses:
sensory impulse is electrical signal propagated along the
nerve fibers (axons) enabling the nerve cells to

communicate and to transmit messages within the


organism.
Afferent impulses travel from their points of origin to their
destinations in the cerebral cortex via the ascending
pathways directly, or they may cross at the level of the
spinal cord or in the medulla, depending on the type of
sensation carried. Sensory impulses convey sensations of
heat, cold, pain, position and vibration sense. The axons
enter the spinal cord by way of the posterior root,
specifically in the posterior gray columns of the spinal
cord, where they connect with the cells of secondary
neurons. Pain and temperature fibers cross immediately to
the opposite side of the cord and course upward to the
thalamus. Fibers carrying sensations of touch, light
pressure, and localization do not connect immediately with
the second neuron but ascend the cord for a variable
distance before entering the gray matter and completing
this connection.

Cont
Position and vibratory sensations are produced by stimuli arising
from muscles, joints, and bones. These stimuli are conveyed,
uncrossed, all the way to the brain stem by the axon of the
primary neuron

Integrating Sensory
Impulses
The thalamus integrates all sensory impulses
except olfaction. It plays a role in the conscious
awareness of pain and the recognition of variation
in temperature and touch. The thalamus is
responsible for the sense of movement and
position as well as the ability to recognize the
size, shape, and quality of objects. Sensory
information is relayed from the thalamus to the
parietal lobe for interpretation.

I liked this pic so I downloaded it

Figure 11.1

Sensory
I got this part from the net its kinda summarizing my part so
you can
include
it if senses receptors are widely spread
General
somatic
you want
to
Touch

Pain
Vibration
Pressure
Temperature

Proprioceptive senses detect stretch in tendons and


muscle
Body sense position and movement of body in space

Special somatic senses

Hearing
Balance
Vision
Smell

Visceral sensory
General visceral senses stretch, pain, temperature, nausea,
and hunger
Widely felt in digestive and urinary tracts, and reproductive
organs

Special visceral senses - taste

Motor
General somatic motor signals contraction of
skeletal muscles
Under our voluntary control
Often called voluntary nervous system

Visceral motor
Regulates the contraction of smooth and cardiac
muscle
Makes up autonomic nervous system
Controls function of visceral organs
Often called involuntary nervous system
Autonomic nervous system

Neuron Classification
Functional:
Sensory (afferent) transmit impulses toward the CNS
Motor (efferent) carry impulses away from the CNS
Interneurons (association neurons) shuttle signals through
CNS pathways

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