Part II neurophysiology

Second year
 introduction
• Sensory systems receive information from the
environment through receptors at the periphery
of the body and transmit this information to the
central nervous system .
• Sensory information is used for three main
functions: sensation, control of movement and
maintaining arousal.
• Not all sensory information is perceived e.g.
sensory information used to control movement.
 Intro
• We also receive sensory information from within
the body e.g. blood vessels and viscera.
• This information is used to regulate
temperature, blood pressure, heart rate,
respiratory rate and reflex movements.
• Regulation of these bodily functions usually does
not reach conciousness
• Sensory information travels to the brain via
specialized pathways for each type of receptor
(labeled- line code of stimulus quality)
 objectives
• Receptor transduction
• Receptive fields and perception
• Phasic and tonic receptors
• Different somatosensory modalities
• Five special senses
• Transmission
• Intergration
 General principles
• All sensory pathways require
•
• (i) a stimulus e.g. light, pressure, sound
• (ii) a sensory receptor transduces the
stimulus into a graded electrical signal i.e the
amplitude of the graded potential is related to
the intensity of the stimulus.
• Each type of sensory receptor has an adequate
stimulus that is unique to that receptor
 Sensory receptors
• Modified neurons – vision, smell, cutaneous
senses
• Modified epithelial cells – auditory, vestibular,
taste
• Some function as plasma membrane
receptoprs
• Are transducers – transform other forms of
energy into electrical energy
 Receptors
• Cutaneous – Paccinian corpuscles and
meissners ( glaborous skin), hair follicle
receptors (hairy skin) – rapidly adapting
• Merkels disk, Ruffini end organ slow adapting
• Thermoreceptors – adapt slowly
• Proprioceptors intermediate
• Nociceptors slow adapting
• The adequate stimulus will produce a change in
the membrane potential of the sensory receptor
to generate a generator or receptor potential.
• The generator potential can be either a
depolarization or a hyperpolarization
• The generator potential, if it produces a
sufficient level of depolarization at the trigger
zone of the axon will fire an action potential or a
series of action
 Sensory modalities
• Different forms of energy are transformed by the
nervous system into different sensations or
sensory modalities Five major sensory
modalities are recognized:
• (i) vision
• (ii) hearing
• (iii) touch
• (iv) taste
• (v) smell
 Classification
• Sensory receptors are divided into 5 major types based
on the type of stimulus to which they are most
sensitive
• (i) Chemoreceptors respond to chemical ligands
that bind to the receptor
• (ii) Mechanoreceptors respond to various forms
of mechanical energy such as pressure, vibration,
sound.
• (iii) Thermoreceptors respond to temperature
• (iv) Photoreceptors respond to light
• (v) Nociceptors respond to noxious (painful)
stimuli
 Somatosensory receptors
• The major types of somatosensory receptors
are
• (i) tactile receptors activated by touch,
pressure and vibration
• (ii) thermal receptors: two types
• cold receptors à respond to temps
below 30oC
• warm receptors à respond above 30oC
• (iii) nociceptors
• mechanical respond to intense mechanical
stimulation
• heat nociceptors à respond to temps above
45oC
• (iv) proprioceptive receptors -Respond to
position and movement of limbs.
•
 Special senses
• Vision
• Hearing
• Taste
• Smell
• Equilibrium
•
Conscious vs. Unconscious
 Function of receptors
• are transducers → convert stimuli into graded
potential (receptor potential)
• are of various complexity
• react to particular forms of stimuli
 transduction
• Converts Stimulus into graded potential =
receptor potential.
– Threshold
• If receptor potential above threshold  AP
– “Adequate Stimulus”
• Receptor potential in non-neural receptors 
change in membrane potential influences NT
release
• Receptor is part of neuron:
• AP triggered if receptor potential above
threshold
Specialized receptor cell:
• Amount of NT released  stimulus strength
Simple neural receptor
Complex neural receptor
Special senses receptor
 transduction
• All transduction mechanism involve
• (i) an adequate stimulus
• (ii) a generator potential
• (iii) the initiation of action potentials
• Sequence of events for sensory transduction in
Pacinian Corpuscle
• Pacinian corpuscle à a somatosensory receptor
located under the skin that responds to touch.
•
• Consists of free nerve endings encapsulated
by layers of connective tissue
• Pressure is the adequate stimulus.
• Pressure causes compression of connective
tissue and consequently the free nerve
endings
• Produces opening of Na channels embedded
in the membrane
• Influx of Na ions depolarizes membrane to
produce a generator potential
• If generator potential is of sufficient
amplitude to depolarize the initial segment of
the axon to threshold to initiate an action
potential, an action potential will be initiated.
 Intensity coding
• Frequency coding
• A method of informing the brain about
• The greater the stimulus intensity e.g. pressure
for a Pacinian corpuscle, the greater the number
of action potentials initiated in the sensory axon
associated with that receptor.
• (ii) Population code
• A greater stimulus intensity (pressure) produces
more action potentials by activating more
receptors
Labeled-line Code of Stimulus Quality

• How the nervous system codes for the type

(quality) of stimulus detected by the sensory
receptor.
• The information about the temperature of the
skin travels to the brain via a different
pathway than does information of, for
example, pressure.
• Different types of receptor have different sets
of connections in the CNS
• Each 1° sensory neuron picks up information
from a receptive field
• Often convergence onto 2° sensory neuron 
summation of multiple stimuli
• Size of receptive field determines sensitivity
to stimulus  Two point discrimination test
• Modality (nature) of stimulus
– Type of receptor
• Location
– lateral inhibition
– population coding)
• Intensity
• Duration
• Intensity is coded by # of receptors activated
and frequency of AP coming from receptor
• Duration is coded by duration of APs in
sensory neurons
• Sustained stimulation leads to adaptation
– Tonic receptors
– Phasic receptors
 Adaptation
• Slow or no adaptation
• Continuous signal transmission for duration of stimulus
• Monitoring of parameters that must be continually
evaluated, e.g.: baroreceptors
•
Rapid adaptation
• Cease firing if strength of a continuous stimulus
remains constant
• Allow body to ignore constant unimportant
information, e.g.:
– Smell
 Transmission
• Sensory Pathway
Stimulus
• Sensory receptor (= transducer)
• Afferent sensory neurons
• CNS
• Integration, perception
Box 3-1: Classification of nerve fibres
FibrGenerator Function Axon diameter  m Conduction
potentials to
action
potentials
AP graded by
frequency
Power function
law- steven ISS =
kSSn
e type
/ Myelin + - velocity, m per s
A (I) motor  - fibres 9-18/+ 70-120
spindle afferents (Ia)
tendon organs (Ib)
A (II) touch and pressure 5-12/+ 30-75
A (II) motor to muscle spindles 3-6/+ 18-36
A (III) pain, pressure, temperature 1-5/- 4-30
• Somatic Senses

• Primary sensory neurons from receptor to

spinal cord or medulla
• Secondary sensory neurons always cross over
(in spinal cord or medulla)  thalamus
• Tertiary sensory neurons  somatosensory
cortex (post central gyrus)
• Aβ, and AΔ fibers mediate pain
• C fibers mediate pruritis
• Fast (A fibers) pain is sharp
• Slow pain (C) is throbbing
• Ascend to limbic system and
hypothalamusEmotional
• Sensory (afferent) axons travel to the spinal cord
bundled together in peripheral nerves. They
enter the spinal cord via the dorsal roots and
synapse with neurons located in the dorsal horn.
•
• The dorsal root ganglion is located just outside
the spinal cord on the dorsal side and is where
the cell bodies of the sensory cells are located.
•
• Each sensory modality is asociated with a
particular nerve fibre of a certain diameter
• (i) Large diameter (13-22um) myelinated
fibers transmit info about touch and pressure. A
beta fibers. They have fast action potential
conduction velocities (70-120m/sec)
• (ii) Small diameter (1-5um) myelinated and
unmyelinated fibers transmit info about
temperature and pain. A delta and c fibers. They
have slow conduction velocities (2-15m/sec)
•
• Organization of the Spinal Cord
•
• Runs from base of head to the small of the back.
• Terms used to describe location of nuclei and fibre
tracts in the spinal cord.
• Longitudinal orientation
• (i) rostral - toward the nose
• (ii) caudal à toward the tail
• Dorso-ventral orientation
• (i) dorsal à towards the back
• (ii) ventral à towards the back
• Sensory fibers enter spinal cord through the
dorsal root and ascend toward the brain in the
dorsal portion of the white matter.
• Synapse with second order sensory neurons in
the dorsal column nuclei.
• Fibers cross over the midline (tract decussates)
and become part of medial lemniscus pathway.
• Fibers project to and synapse with cells in the
thalamus.
• Fibers project to and synapse with cells in the
cortex.
 Thalamus
• The thalamus often described Ãrelay stationÃ
• Receives visual, auditory, and taste info in
addition to somatic info.
• Somatic sensory input processed in the
ventral posterior lateral (VPL) nucleus.
• Neurons in VPL transmit info to the neocortex.
 Neocortex
• The neocortex is divided into discrete regions that receive
somatic, visual, auditory, guststory sensations.
•
• There are also regions devoted to the control of movement
and other functions e.g. speech
•
• The somatic sensory cortex is topographically organized i.e.
sensory information from the various body areas are
concentrated in discrete areas of the cortex e.g. sensory
info from the legs is sent to the medial portion while info
from the arms, head and face is sent to the most lateral
regions of the cortex.
•
• The amount of space of the sensory cortex
devoted to each part of the body is proportional
to the sensitivity of the body part. Thus, areas in
the cortex representing the thumb and fingers of
the hand occupy substantially more space than
that represented by the torso.
•
• Somatic sensory cortex also organized so that all
of the cells that respond to one type of sensation
are located together within vertical columns. ß
•
• The area of skin that a sensory neuron innervates is
the receptive field for that particular neuron.
•
• Stimulation with the appropriate stimulus within the
receptive field will activate the sensory neuron
associated with that receptive field.
•
• Receptive fields of individual sensory neurons
frequently overlap with the receptive field of
neighboring receptors
•
• Primary sensory and secondary sensory neurons
do not always exist in a 1:1 ratio i.e. multiple
primary sensory neurons converge onto a single
secondary sensory neuron. Thus the receptive
fields of secondary sensory neurons are often
larger than primary sensory neurons.
•
• This allows simultaneous subthreshold stiumuli
to summate at the secondary sensory neuron
and initiate an action potential.
•
• The size of the secondary sensory neuronÃs
receptive field determines the sensitivity of an
area to a stimulus.
• Sensitivity can be demonstrated with the two
point disrimination test.
• Very sensitive areas e.g. finger tips. There is not
much convergence of sensory input at the second
order level. Receptive fields of secondary sensory
neurons are small. Thus two stimuli separated by
only a few mm will be perceived as distinct
stimuli.
• Less sensitive areas e.g. arms and legs. There
is a lot of convergence of sensory input at the
second order level. Receptive fields of
secondary sensory neurons are large. Thus
two stimuli applied close together are
perceived as only one stimulus.