How the body senses anything: what a sensation is and its four dimensions, how receptors are classified and built, how a stimulus becomes a receptor potential and then action potentials, and the properties that all receptors share. Examiners ask most for the properties of receptors and the receptor potential, as short notes and MCQs, and sometimes set receptors as a long essay. MCQs also like the site where the action potential starts, the law of projection and the labelled line.
Topics, in the book’s order
- Sensation: general principles · pp. 995–996
- Sensory receptors and their classification · pp. 996–999 · asked once
- Receptor potential and properties of receptors · pp. 999–1000 · asked 6 times
When you’ve read them: Quiz 117 · Introduction to Sensory System and Physiology of Receptors, 15 questions.
After this chapter you should be able to
- define sensation and describe its dimensions
- define a receptor and classify receptors
- describe the structure and function of the important receptors
- explain how the receptor potential is generated
- list and explain the properties of receptors
Going further: describe the structure and function of every receptor, and each property of receptors, in detail.
Viva checklist
- Sensation, perception and sensory modulation
- The three types of sensation, with examples
- The four dimensions of sensation
- What a receptor, a sense organ and an adequate stimulus are
- Receptors classified by function, by adequate stimulus and by location
- The two kinds of nociceptor, and what each responds to
- Pacinian corpuscle: structure, size, nerve fibre and function
- The largest and the most superficial mechanoreceptor; which ones adapt slowly
- The receptor potential, and how it differs from an action potential
- How the receptor potential forms in a Pacinian corpuscle, and where the action potential starts
- Phasic and tonic receptors, with examples
- How receptors code stimulus strength; the Weber–Fechner law
- The law of projection and phantom limb
- Müller’s doctrine of specific nerve energy (the labelled line)