CHAPTER 5

Sensation and Perception

2
3
4
 Introduction
How do we represent the world in our
head?
✢ Through Sensation and Perception!

✢ Everything we sense (i.e., see, taste, hear,

touch, smell) requires billions of nerve
cells to send messages to, from, across,
and between the cells in our brains... like
a computer.

5
 Introduction
Sensation
✢ The process of detecting and encoding stimulus in the world.

✢ The basic function is detection of sensory stimuli and the transmission of

information to the nervous system.
✢ Automatic, low-level information coding through the senses.

✢ Results from sources of energy.

✢ Light, sound, chemicals.

Perception
✢ Interpretation of sensory information.

✢ Conscious sensory experience, high-level processing, in cortex.

6
 Introduction
Sensation
✢ Sensory organs absorb energy from a physical stimulus in the environment.

✢ Sensory receptors convert this energy into neural impulses and send them to
the brain (sensory coding or transduction).
Perception
✢ The brain organizes the information and translates it into something
meaningful.

7
 Sensation
✢ Stimulus - is any form of energy to which our senses respond.
✢ e.g: the light that hits our eyes would be considered a stimulus.

✢ Sensory receptor – Specialized cells designed to be activated by particular

physical stimuli.
✢ Sensory receptor cells differ in terms of morphology, location, and
stimulus.
✢ Transduction - Process in which a physical stimulus becomes a biological
signal (chemical or electrical  electrical neural signal)
✢ Processing of neural signal - Convergence & divergence.
✢ Sensory deprivation - sensory input (sound, light, smell, etc.) is minimized.
8
awareness of changes in the
internal and external Perception
environment
interpretation of those
stimuli

9
Sensory
receptor

10
 Sensory Receptor
Classification
✢ Mechanoreceptors
✢ Mechanical forces – stretching alters membrane permeability

✢ Hair cells (deflection = depolarization = APs)

✢ Stretch receptors of muscles
✢ Equilibrium receptor of inner ear
✢ Receptors of skin (touch, pain, cold, heat)

11
12
 Sensory Receptor
Classification
✢ Thermoreceptors
✢ (Radiant heat energy) sensitive to changes in temperature

✢ Photoreceptors
✢ Respond to light energy (e.g., retina)

✢ Chemoreceptors
✢ Respond to chemicals (e.g., smell, taste, changes in blood chemistry)

✢ Nociceptors
✢ sensitive to pain-causing stimuli
13
 Sensory Receptor
Classification : Location
Sensory receptors can be classified by location:
✢ Cutaneous receptors are sensory receptors found in the dermis or epidermis.

✢ Free nerve ending – pain

✢ Krause’s End Bulbs – cold

✢ Ruffini’s Endings – heat

✢ Meissner’s Corpuscles – touch

✢ Pacinian Corpuscles - Pressure

✢ Muscle spindles contain mechanoreceptors that detect stretch in muscles.
14
15
 Sensory Receptor
Classification : Complexity
✢ Receptors are structurally classified as either simple or complex.
✢ Most receptors are simple and include encapsulated and unencapsulated
varieties.
✢ Complex receptors are special sense organs.
✢ Irrespective of modality, all somatosensory information from the limbs and
trunk is conveyed by dorsal root ganglion neurons
✢ The terminal of the peripheral branch of the axon is the only portion of the
dorsal root ganglion cell that is sensitive to natural stimuli

16
Simple Receptors: Unencapsulated

17
Simple Receptors: Encapsulated

18
 Sensation
✢ Not all stimulation is received and
translated. The minimum stimulation
necessary to detect a particular stimulus
(light, sound, pressure, taste, odor) -
absolute threshold
absolute
✢ e.g.: How loud does someone have to threshold
call out your name before you can
hear it.
✢ Can differ from person to person - Stem
from psychological and biological
factors.
19
 Sensation
✢ Difference Threshold - Minimum difference between two stimuli required for
detection 50% of the time.
✢ Also called just noticeable difference (JND).

20
 Sensation
✢ Sensory Adaptation - Tendency of sensory receptor cells to become less
responsive to a stimulus that is unchanging.
✢ Receptors are no longer sending signals to the brain .

21
22
23
 The Senses
Traditional Five
✢ Visual , Auditory , Touch, Smell, Taste

Six others that humans have

✢ Nociception (pain)

✢ Equilbrioception (balance)

✢ Proprioception & Kinesthesia (joint motion and acceleration)

✢ Sense of time

✢ Thermoception (temperature)

✢ Magnetoception (direction)

24
 The Senses
Sense Stimulus Receptors

Vision Electromagnetic energy Rods and cones in the retina

Audition Sound waves Hair cells of the inner ear

Olfaction Chemical substance in the air Receptors cells in the nose

Taste Chemical substances in saliva Taste buds on the tongue

Tactile Pressure on the skin Nerve endings in the skin

25
 The Visual System
✢ A slightly irregular hollow sphere with
anterior and posterior poles.
✢ The wall is composed of three tunics –
fibrous, vascular, and sensory.
✢ The internal cavity is filled with fluids
called humors.
✢ The lens separates the internal cavity
into anterior and posterior segments.

26
 Fibrous Tunic
✢ Forms the outermost coat of the eye and
is composed of:
✢ Opaque sclera (posteriorly)

✢ Clear cornea (anteriorly)

✢ The sclera protects the eye and anchors

extrinsic muscles.
✢ The cornea lets light enter the eye.

27
 Vascular Tunic
✢ Has three regions:
✢ choroid

✢ ciliary body, and

✢ iris

✢ Choroid region
✢ A dark brown membrane that forms
the posterior portion of the uvea.
✢ Supplies blood to all eye tunics.

28
 Ciliary Body
✢ A thickened ring of tissue surrounding
the lens.
✢ Composed of smooth muscle bundles
(ciliary muscles).
✢ Anchors the suspensory ligament that
holds the lens in place.

29
 Iris
✢ Pupil – central opening of the iris.
✢ Regulates the amount of light entering the
eye during:
✢ Close vision and bright light – pupils
constrict.
✢ Distant vision and dim light – pupils
dilate
✢ Changes in emotional state – pupils
dilate when the subject matter is
appealing or requires problem-solving
skills.
30
 Sensory Tunic: Retina
✢ A delicate two-layered membrane
✢ Pigmented layer – the outer layer that absorbs light and prevents
its scattering
✢ Neural layer, which contains:
○ Photoreceptors that transduce light energy
○ Bipolar cells and ganglion cells
○ Amacrine and horizontal cells

31
Retina

32
Schematic
Layers of
Retina

33
 Neural layer of Retina
✢ Direct (vertical) pathway:

Photoreceptors Rod
cone

Bipolar cells Transmit information from

photoreceptor to ganglion cells

Transmit information from the

Ganglion cells
retina to the rest of the brain

34
The Retina: Ganglion Cells
and the Optic Disc
✢ Ganglion cell axons
○ Run along the inner surface of the retina.
○ Leave the eye as the optic nerve.
✢ The optic disc
○ Is the site where the optic nerve leaves the eye.
○ Lacks photoreceptors (the blind spot).

35
The Retina: Ganglion Cells and the Optic Disc

Sensation and Perception 36

 The Retina:
Photoreceptors
✢ Rods
○ Respond to dim light.
○ Are used for peripheral vision.
✢ Cones
○ Respond to bright light.
○ Have high-acuity color vision .
○ Are found in the macula lutea .
○ Are concentrated in the fovea centralis.
37
 Regional Differences in Retinal Structure
○ Varies from fovea to retinal periphery
○ Peripheral retina
○ Higher ratio of rods to cones
○ Higher ratio of photoreceptors to
ganglion cells
○ More sensitive to light
○ Central fovea: All cones (no rods)
○ 1:1 ratio with ganglion cells
○ Area of high visual acuity

38
 Photoreceptor Cells
✢ Posterior layer of retina - pigment
epithelium.
○ Purpose is to absorb stray light and prevent
reflections.
✢ Photoreceptors
○ Rod cells (night - scotopic vision).
○ Outer segment - stack of coinlike
membranous discs studded with
rhodopsin pigment molecules.
○ Cone cells (color - photopic vision)
○ Outer segment tapers to a point. 39
 Cataracts and Glaucoma
✢ Cataract - clouding of lens
○ Aging, diabetes, smoking,
and UV light.
✢ Glaucoma
○ Death of retinal cells due to
elevated pressure within the
eye.

41
 Near Response
✢ Allows eyes to focus on nearby object (that sends oblique light waves to
eyes)
○ Convergence of eyes
○ Eyes orient their visual axis towards object.
○ Constriction of pupil
○ Blocks peripheral light rays and reduces spherical aberration
(blurry edges)
○ Accomodation of lens
○ Ciliary muscle contracts, lens takes convex shape
○ Light refracted more strongly and focused onto retina
○ Increase refractory power
47
Emmetropia Near Response

Distant object Close object

48
Emmetropia
Near
Response

49
Accommodation of the Lens

50
 Effect of Corrected Lens
✢ Hyperopia - farsighted (eyeball too short)
○ Correct with convex lenses
✢ Myopia - nearsighted (eyeball too long)
○ Correct with concave lenses

51
 Rhodopsin Bleaching /
Regeneration
Rhodopsin absorbs light, converted
from bent shape (cis-retinal) to
straight (trans-retinal)
○ Retinal dissociates from opsin
(bleaching).
○ 5 minutes to regenerate 50% of
bleached rhodopsin.

53
 Generating
Visual
Signals

BIO 616 Lecture 9 54

Generating Nerve Signals -
Rods
✢ In the dark, rods exhibit a dark signal
○ Flow of Na+ and release of neurotransmitter (glutamate).
○ Depolarization by Na+ stimulates glutamate release.
✢ In the light, dark current and glutamate release stops
○ Bleached rhodopsin molecule acts like an enzyme and breaks
down cGMP molecules
○ Na+ gates close and dark current ceases (inhibition stops), nerve
signal results.
55
 Bipolar Cell Function
✢ Two kinds of bipolar cells
○ Inhibited (hyperpolarized) by glutamate
○ Excited by rising light intensity
○ Excited (depolarized) by glutamate
○ Excited by falling light intensity
✢ As your eye scans a scene, areas of light and dark cause a changing
pattern of bipolar cell responses.
✢ Variable pattern of stimulation of ganglion cells and nerve signals
sent to the brain.
56
Light and Dark Adaptation
✢ Light adaptation (walk out into sunlight)
○ Pupil constriction and pain from over stimulated retinas
○ Color vision and acuity below normal for 5 to 10 minutes
✢ Dark adaptation (turn lights off)
○ Dilation of pupils occurs
○ 20 to 30 minutes required for regeneration of rhodopsin

57
Pupil Dilation and Constriction

58
Scotopic System (Night Vision)
✢ Rods sensitive – react even in dim light
○ Extensive neuronal convergence.
○ 600 rods converge on 1 bipolar cell.
○ Many bipolar converge on each ganglion cell.
○ Results in high degree of spatial summation .
○ One ganglion cells receives information from 1 mm2 of
retina producing only a coarse image.
✢ Edges of retina have widely-spaced rod cells, act as motion
detectors.
59
Photopic System (Day Vision)
✢ Fovea contains only 4000 tiny cone cells (no rods)
○ No neuronal convergence
○ Each foveal cone cell has “private line to brain”
✢ High-resolution color vision
○ Little spatial summation so less sensitivity to dim light

BIO 616 Lecture 9 Sensation and Perception 60

 Colour Blindness
✢ Hereditary lack of one photopsin
○ Red-green is common (lack either red or green cones)
○ Incapable of distinguishing red from green
○ Sex-linked recessive (8% of males)

62
Stereoscopic Vision (Stereopsis)
✢ Depth perception - ability to judge distance to objects
○ Requires 2 eyes with overlapping visual fields
○ Panoramic vision has eyes on sides of head (horse)
✢ Fixation point
○ Farther away requires image focus medial to fovea
○ Closer results in image focus lateral to fovea

63
 Visual and Retinal Fields
✢ The human field of view in each eye is
obscured in the far lateral region of the
opposite side of the head by the
protruberance of the nose.
✢ Each retina is divided into nasal retina
(cells near the nose, sees the world out to
the same side) and temporal retina (cells
near the temoral bone, see the world
towards the other side.
✢ The information from the two halves of the
retina go to different places in the higher
CNS . 64
Visual Projection Pathway

Sensation and Perception 65

 Visual Projection Pathway
✢ Bipolar and ganglion cells in retina - 1st and 2nd order neurons (ganglion cell
axons of form CN II)
✢ Hemidecussation in optic chiasm
○ 1/2 of fibers decussate so that images of all objects in left visual field fall on
right half of each retina
○ Each side of brain sees what is on side where it has motor control over
limbs
✢ 3rd order neurons in lateral geniculate nucleus of thalamus form optic radiation
to 1 visual cortex where conscious visual sensation occurs
✢ Few fibers project to superior colliculi and midbrain for visual reflexes
(photopupillary and accomodation)

66
Visual Information Processing
✢ Some processing occurs in retina
○ Adjustments for contrast, brightness, motion and stereopsis.
✢ Visual association areas in parietal and temporal lobes process
visual data
○ Object location, motion, colour, shape, boundaries
○ Store visual memories (recognize printed words)

67
 Deficits in
the Visual
Pathway

BIO 616 Lecture 9 Sensation and Perception 68

 Summary
✢ Light emitted by or reflected off objects in space  imaged onto
the retina.
✢ Transduction
○ Light energy converted into membrane potentials.
○ Phototransduction parallels olfactory transduction.
○ Electrical-to-chemical-electrical signal .
✢ Mapping of visual space onto retinal ganglion cells not uniform.

69
 Visual Transduction Mechanism
In the LIGHT
• rhodopsin changes
conformation, which
activated
enzyme TRANSDUCIN
• transducin
activates Phosphodiestrase
, converts cyclic
GMP to GMP.
• GMP closes the Na channels, and hyperpolarizes rod cells (receptor potential)
• hyperpolarized rod cell stops releasing glutamate, allowing bipolar cells respond.
70
 Visual Transduction Mechanism
In the DARK,
• rhodopsin is
inactive and cGMP is
bound to rod cell
membranes.
• Na channel is open; rod
cell is DEPOLARIZED
and releases
neurotransmitter GLUT
AMATE .

• GLUTAMATE excites or inhibits adjacent Bipolar cells = no sensation of light.

71
 The Chemical Senses
✢ Animals depend on the chemical senses to identify nourishment.
✢ Chemical sensation
○ Oldest and most common sensory system.
✢ Chemical senses – gustation (taste) and olfaction (smell)
✢ Their chemoreceptors respond to chemicals in aqueous solution
○ Taste – to substances dissolved in saliva
○ Smell – to substances dissolved in fluids of the nasal
membranes

72
 Taste
✢ The Organs of taste
○ Tongue, mouth, palate,
pharynx, and epiglottis

73
 Taste Buds
✢ Most of the 10,000 or so taste buds are found
on the tongue.
✢ Taste receptors
○ Occur in taste buds
○ Most are found on the surface of the
tongue.
○ Located within tongue papillae.
○ Two types of papillae (with taste buds)
○ Fungiform papillae
○ Circumvallate papillae
○ NOTE: Filiform papillae do NOT
contain taste buds
○ Filiform papillae help you
appreciate texture of food 74
Taste Buds

Sensation and Perception 75

 Anatomy of a Taste Buds
✢ Each gourd-shaped taste bud consists of three major cell types
○ Supporting cells – insulate the receptor
○ Basal cells – dynamic stem cells
○ Gustatory cells – taste cells

Sensation and Perception 76

 Taste Sensations
✢ There are five basic taste sensations
○ Sweet – sugars, saccharin, alcohol, and some amino acids,
some lead salts.
○ Salt – metal ions (inorganic salts); NaCl tastes saltiest.
○ Sour – hydrogen ions in solution.
○ Bitter – alkaloids such as quinine and nicotine, caffeine,
and non-alkaloids such as aspirin.
○ Umami – elicited by the amino acid glutamate and
aspartate.
77
 Taste Sensations
✢ Possible sixth taste
○ Growing evidence humans can taste long-chain fatty acids
from lipids
○ Perhaps explain liking of fatty foods
✢ Taste likes/dislikes have homeostatic value
○ Guide intake of beneficial and potentially harmful substances
○ Dislike for sourness and bitterness is a protective way of
warning us if something is spoiled or poisonous

78
 Taste Sensations
✢ The Organs of Taste
○ Areas of sensitivity on the tongue
○ Tip of the tongue
○ Sweetness
○ Back of the tongue
○ Bitterness
○ Sides of tongues
○ Saltiness and sourness

79
 Physiology of Taste
✢ In order to be tasted, a chemical:
○ Must be dissolved in saliva.
○ Diffuse into taste pore.
○ Must contact gustatory hairs
✢ Activation of taste receptors
○ Binding of food chemical (tastant) depolarizes cell membrane of
gustatory epithelial cell membrane, causing release of
neurotransmitter .
○ Neurotransmitter binds to dendrite of sensory neuron and
initiates a generator potential that lead to action potentials.
80
 Physiology of Taste
○ Different gustatory cells have different thresholds for
activation.
○ Bitter receptors are most sensitive.
○ All adapt in 3–5 seconds, with complete adaptation in 1–5
minutes.

81
 Physiology of Taste
✢ Taste transduction
○ Gustatory epithelial cell depolarization caused by:
○ Salty taste is due to Na+ influx that directly causes depolarization.
○ Sour taste is due to H+ acting intracellularly by opening channels
that allow other cations to enter.
○ Unique receptors for sweet, bitter, and umami, but all are coupled
to G protein gustducin.
○ Activation causes release of stored Ca2+ that opens cation
channels, causing depolarization and release of
neurotransmitter ATP.
82
 Physiology of Taste
Taste Receptor
Cells

83
 Physiology of Taste
✢ Mechanisms of Taste Transduction
○ Transduction process
○ Taste stimuli (tastants)
○ Pass directly through ion channels.
○ Bind to and block ion channels.
○ Bind to G-protein-coupled receptors.

84
Physiology of
Taste

85
 Mechanisms of
Taste
Transduction
Saltiness
○ Salt-sensitive taste cells
○ Special Na+ selective channel
○ Blocked by the drug amiloride

86
 Mechanisms of
Taste
Transduction
Sourness
○ Sourness- acidity – low pH.
○ Protons causative agents of acidity
and sourness.

87
 Mechanisms of
Taste
Transduction
Bitterness
○ Families of taste receptor genes
- TIR and T2R

88
 Mechanisms of
Taste
Transduction
Sweetness
○ Sweet tastants natural and artificial
○ Sweet receptors
○ T1R2+T1R3
○ Expressed in different taste cells
89
 Mechanisms of
Taste
Transduction
✢ Umami
○ Umami receptors:
○ Detect amino acids
○ T1R1+T1R3

90
 Gustatory
Pathway
✢ Fibers synapse in the solitary
nucleus of the medulla, then
travel to thalamus, and then to
gustatory cortex in the insula
○ Hypothalamus and limbic
system are involved; allow
us to determine
appreciation of taste
91
 Gustatory Pathway
✢ Important roles of taste involve:
○ Triggering reflexes involved in digestion, such as:
○ Increased secretion of saliva into mouth.
○ Increased secretion of gastric juice into stomach.
○ May initiate protective reactions, such as:
○ Gagging
○ Reflexive vomiting

92
 Gustatory Pathway
✢ Central Taste Pathways
○ Gustatory nucleus
○ Point where taste axons bundle and synapse
○ Ventral posterior medial nucleus (VPM)
○ Deals with sensory information from the head
○ Primary gustatory cortex
○ Receives axons from VPM taste neurons
○ Localized lesions
○ Ageusia- the loss of taste perception

BIO 616 Lecture 9 Sensation and Perception 93

 Gustatory Pathway
✢ The Neural Coding of Taste
○ Labeled line hypothesis
○ Individual taste receptor cells for each stimuli
○ In reality, neurons broadly tuned
○ Population coding
○ Roughly labeled lines
○ Temperature
○ Textural features of food

94
 Influence of Other
Sensations on Taste
✢ Taste is 80% smell
✢ Thermoreceptors, mechanoreceptors, nociceptors also influence
tastes
✢ Temperature and texture enhance or detract from taste

95
 Sense of Smell
✢ Pheromones
○ Smell— a mode of communication
○ Important signals
○ Reproductive behaviour
○ Territorial boundaries
○ Identification
○ Aggression
○ Role of human pheromones

96
 Sense of Smell
✢ The organ of smell is the olfactory epithelium, which covers the
superior nasal conchae .
✢ Olfactory receptor cells are bipolar neurons with radiating
olfactory cilia.
✢ Olfactory receptors are surrounded and cushioned by
supporting cells.
✢ Basal cells lie at the base of the epithelium.

97
BIO 616 Lecture 9 Sensation and Perception 98
 Sense of Smell
✢ The Organs of Smell
○ Odorants: Activate transduction processes in neurons
○ Olfactory axons constitute olfactory nerve
○ Cribriform plate: A thin sheet of bone through which small
clusters of axons penetrate, coursing to the olfactory bulb
○ Anosmia: Inability to smell
○ Humans: Weak smellers
○ Due to small surface area of olfactory epithelium

99
 Physiology of Smell
✢ Olfactory receptors respond to several different odour-causing
chemicals
✢ When bound to ligand these proteins initiate a
G protein mechanism, which uses cAMP as a second messenger
✢ cAMP opens Na+ and Ca2+ channels, causing depolarization of the
receptor membrane that then triggers an action potential

100
Olfactory Transduction Mechanism

101
Olfactory Transduction Mechanism

102
Olfactory Transduction Mechanism
Odorant Odorant Na+
binding chemical
protein

Inactive Active

ATP Na+ influx causes

Adenylate depolarization
cyclase
cAMP

Depolarization of
olfactory receptor cell
membrane triggers
action potentials in
Cytoplasm axon of receptor 103
 Olfactory Pathway
✢ Olfactory receptor cells synapse with mitral cells
✢ Glomerular mitral cells process odor signals
✢ Mitral cells send impulses to:
○ The olfactory cortex
○ The hypothalamus, amygdala, and limbic system

104
Olfactory Pathway

105
Olfactory Pathway

Sensation and Perception 106

 Olfactory Pathway
✢ Central Olfactory Pathways
○ Axons of the olfactory tract: Branch and enter the
forebrain.
○ Neocortex: Reached by a pathway that synapses in the
medial dorsal nucleus.

Sensation and Perception 107

 Olfactory Pathway
✢ Olfactory Transduction
○ Adaptation: Decreased response
despite continuous stimulus

Sensation and Perception 108

 Olfactory Pathway
✢ Spatial and Temporal Representations of Olfactory
Information
○ Olfactory Population Coding
○ Olfactory Maps (sensory maps)
○ Temporal Coding in the Olfactory System
✢ Olfaction paradox

BIO 616 Lecture 9 Sensation and Perception 109

 Summary
✢ Transduction mechanisms
○ Gustation and olfaction
✢ Similar to the signaling systems used in every cell of the body
✢ Common sensory principles - broadly tuned cells
○ Population coding
○ Sensory maps in brain
✢ Timing of action potentials
○ May represent sensory information in ways not yet
understood

110
The Ear: Hearing and Balance
✢ The three parts of the ear are the inner, outer, and middle ear
✢ The outer and middle ear are involved with hearing
✢ The inner ear functions in both hearing and equilibrium
✢ Receptors for hearing and balance:
○ Respond to separate stimuli
○ Are activated independently

111
Outer Ear

112
 Outer Ear
✢ Fleshy auricle (pinna) directs air vibrations down external
auditory meatus
○ Cartilagenous and bony, S-shaped tunnel ending at
eardrum
○ Glandular secretions and dead cells form cerumen (earwax)

113
Anatomy of the Middle Ear

114
 Middle Ear
✢ Air-filled tympanic cavity in temporal bone between tympanic
membrane and oval window
○ Continuous with mastoid air cells
✢ Contains
○ Auditory tube (eustachian tube) connects to nasopharynx
○ Equalizes air pressure on tympanic membrane
○ Ear ossicles
○ Malleus
○ Incus
○ Stapes
○ Stapedius and tensor tympani muscles attach to stapes and malleus
115
Anatomy of the Inner Ear

116
 Inner Ear
✢ Bony labyrinth - passageways in temporal bone
✢ Membranous labyrinth - fleshy tubes lining bony tunnels
○ Filled with endolymph (similar to intracellular fluid)
○ Floating in perilymph (similar to cerebrospinal fluid)

117
✢ Bony labyrinth
Inner Ear
○ Tortuous channels worming their way through the temporal bone
○ Contains the vestibule, the cochlea, and the semicircular canals
○ Filled with perilymph
✢ Membranous labyrinth
○ Series of membranous sacs within the bony labyrinth
○ Filled with a potassium-rich fluid

118
Details of the Inner Ear

119
Details of the Inner Ear

120
 Anatomy of the Cochlea
✢ The cochlea is formed from three chambers:
○ Scala vestibuli and scala media are
separated by a membrane
○ Scala tympani and scala media are
separated by the basilar membrane
✢ Hair cells within the organ of Corti transduce
sound waves into nerve impulses
✢ The organ of Corti consists of
○ Basilar membrane (forms the base)
○ Tectorial membrane (forms the roof)
○ Hair cells in between
121
 Auditory Hair Cells
✢ Two types of hair cells are located within the human organ of Corti
○ Inner hair cells (approximately 3500) form a single line of cells along the basilar
membrane
○ Destruction of inner hair cells eliminates hearing
○ Outer hair cells (approximately 12,000) are arranged in three rows along the
basilar membrane
○ Outer hair cells serve a structural function
○ Cilia project from the top of each hair cell
○ The tectorial membrane is attached to the outer hair cell cilia
○ When sound waves move the basilar and tectorial membranes, the cilia bend
in one direction or the other
○ Shear of the cilia generates a receptor potential that releases a
neurotransmitter 122
Physiology of Hearing – Middle
Ear
✢ Tympanic membrane
○ Has 18 times area of oval window
○ Ossicles transmit enough force/unit area at oval window to
vibrate endolymph in scala vestibuli
✢ Tympanic reflex – muscle contraction
○ Tensor tympani muscle tenses tympanic membrane
○ Stapedius muscle reduces mobility of stapes
○ Best response to slowly building loud sounds
○ Occurs while speaking
123
Stimulation of Cochlear Hair
Cells
✢ Vibration of ossicles causes vibration of basilar membrane under
hair cells
○ As often as 20,000 times/second

124
 Auditory Transduction
✢ Cilia tips are joined by a fibre link
✢ Stereocilia of OHCs (outer hair cells)
○ Bathed in high K+
○ Creating electrochemical gradient
○ Tips embedded in tectorial membrane
○ Bend in response to movement of basilar membrane
○ Cilia movement produces tension of the link which opens an ion channel
in the adjacent tip
○ Ca2+ and K+ ions flow into the cilia and produce a depolarization wich
causes release of neurotransmitter
○ Stimulates sensory dendrites at base
125
Auditory Transduction

126
Innervations of Internal Ear
✢ Vestibular ganglia - visible in vestibular nerve
✢ Spiral ganglia - buried in modiolus of cochlea

127
 Auditory Pathways
✢ Afferent pathways:
○ Through cochlear nuclei
○ To superior olivary nuclei
○ To inferior colliculus
○ To medial geniculate
○ To auditory cortex
✢ Efferent pathway:

○ Olivocochlear bundle
✢ Auditory pathways decussate so that both

cortices receive input from both ears

128
Auditory Pathways

Sensation and Perception 129

Auditory Projection Pathways
✢ Spiral ganglion formed by cell bodies of sensory neurons
✢ Axons form cochlear nerve portion of CN VIII
✢ Synapse in cochlear nuclei
✢ Binaural hearing
○ Superior olivary nucleus compares sounds from both sides to
identify direction
✢ Inferior colliculus helps
○ Locate origin of sound
○ Process fluctuations in pitch during speech
○ Produce startle response; head turning to loud sound
✢ Fibers from inferior colliculus go to primary auditory cortex –
temporal lobe. 130
 Properties of Sound
✢ Frequency – the number of waves that pass a given point in a
given time
✢ Pitch – perception of different frequencies (we hear from 20–
20,000 Hz)
✢ Amplitude – intensity of a sound measured in decibels (dB)
✢ Loudness – subjective interpretation of sound intensity

131
Properties of Sound

132
Transmission of Sound to the
Inner Ear

133
 Sensory Coding
✢ Vigorous vibrations excite more inner hair cells over a larger area
○ Triggers higher frequency of action potentials
○ Brain interprets this as louder sound
✢ Pitch depends on which part of basilar membrane vibrates

134
 Place Coding of Pitch
✢ Different frequencies produce maximal distortion of basilar
membrane
○ Sound vibration produces a traveling wave
○ High frequency: near base of basilar membrane (narrow
and stiff)
○ Brain interpret signals as high-pitched
○ Moderate frequency: near apex of basilar membrane (5
times wider and more flexible)
○ Brain interpret signals as low-pitched

135
 Place Coding of Pitch
○ Different regions of the basilar membrane project to different
areas of auditory cortex
○ Throughout the auditory system there is a tonotopic
representation in which adjacent neurons receive signals from
adjacent areas of the basilar membrane
✢ Place coding can account for medium to high sound frequencies,
low frequency sounds are coded by rate of firing

136
 Basilar Membrane Frequency
Response

BIO 616 Lecture 9 Sensation and Perception 137

 Support for Place Coding
✢ Observations of traveling waves by von Bekesy
○ Different frequencies produce maximal displacement at
different points along the basilar membrane
✢ Antibiotics
○ Induce hair cell loss first at base of basilar membrane, which
produces a loss of hearing for high frequency sounds
✢ Cochlear implants restore speech perception by stimulating
different regions of the basilar membrane.

138
 Auditory Processing
✢ Pitch is perceived by:
○ The primary auditory cortex
○ Cochlear nuclei
✢ Loudness is perceived by:
○ Varying thresholds of cochlear cells
○ The number of cells stimulated
✢ Localization is perceived by superior olivary nuclei that
determine sound

139
Auditory Processing Centres
✢ Damage to either auditory cortex does not cause unilateral deafness
(extensive decussation)

140
Balance and Orientation
Pathways
✢ There are three modes of
input for balance and
orientation.
○ Vestibular receptors.
○ Visual receptors.
○ Somatic receptors.
✢ These receptors allow our
body to respond reflexively.
141
142
143