The Role of Your Other Senses Unit 2, Psychology Sensation and Perception

Smell Usually good or bad Evolutionary psych link this to animal’s reliance on smell to distinguish between good and bad or safe/unsafe Is 10,000 times more sensitive than taste! Goes through adaptation

Detecting Smell Our smell receptor cells live on our olfactory epithelium way up in our nasal cavity Once a smell hits our olfactory epithelium, the message is sent to the olfactory bulb in the brain which records scents for future reference

Communicating w/ Pheromones Pheromones are hormones that trigger behavior reactions (sexual, aggressive, etc) Our vomeronasal organ (in the roof of our nasal cavity) is a second home of smell receptor cells. RCs on the VNO send pheromone messages to the olfactory bulb as well

Taste Flavor is actually a combo of taste and smell. *Pinch your nose when you eat and notice the flavor changes* Our RCs live on our taste buds. Adults have 10,000 taste buds, but you loose them as you age, which is why taste preference can change over time

Back of Tongue

Thoughts Control Prosthesis

Skin/Touch Senses Skin is our largest sense organ Touch is vital to our social development RCs live in various depths upon the skin 3 associated senses- kinesthetic, vestibular, pain

Kinesthetic Senses Kinesthetic refers to our sense of movement, posture and strain on muscles and joints RCs known as stretch receptors live on our muscle fibers and nerve endings

Sense of Motion/ Vestibular Our sense of motion depends on our vestibular senses: sense of orientation of body in space Balance of inner ear fluid controls our sense of motion by sending messages to the portion of the brain in charge of muscle movement/reflexes/etc

Pain RCs likely live on nerves and skin w/ touch RCs, but scientists have no proof Pain is odd: sometimes we feel no pain, although damage has occurred; sometimes people who long ago lost a limb have phantom pain in a limb that no longer exists

Pain Theories 1. Gate Control Theory: a neurological gage in the spinal cord controls transmission of pain messages to the brain 2. Bio-psycho-social Theory: pain is influenced by biology, psychology, and culture 3. Placebo Effect: when given an placebo, our brain knows there is a problem and releases endorphins (the body’s natural pain killer)

Exit Ticket 1. What evolutionary explanation is given for our sense of smells 2. Where are the RCs for smell, taste, kinesthetic, skin and pain senses? 3. Distinguish each of the pain theories.