Functions
The sensory receptors involved in taste and smell contain receptor molecules that bind to specific chemicals. Odor receptors in olfactory receptor neurons, for example, are activated by interacting with molecular structures on the odor molecule. Similarly, taste receptors (gustatory receptors) in taste buds interact with chemicals in food to produce an action potential.
Other receptors such as mechanoreceptors and photoreceptors respond to physical stimuli. For example, photoreceptor cells contain specialized proteins such as rhodopsin to transduce the physical energy in light into electrical signals. Some types of mechanoreceptors fire action potentials when their membranes are physically stretched.
The sensory receptor functions are the first component in a sensory system.
Sensory receptors respond to specific stimulus modalities. The stimulus modality to which a sensory receptor responds is determined by the sensory receptor's adequate stimulus.
The sensory receptor responds to its stimulus modality by initiating sensory transduction. This may be accomplished by a net shift in the initial states of a receptor (see a picture of these putative states with the biophysical description ).
Read more about this topic: Sensory Receptor
Famous quotes containing the word functions:
“Mark the babe
Not long accustomed to this breathing world;
One that hath barely learned to shape a smile,
Though yet irrational of soul, to grasp
With tiny finger—to let fall a tear;
And, as the heavy cloud of sleep dissolves,
To stretch his limbs, bemocking, as might seem,
The outward functions of intelligent man.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“Nobody is so constituted as to be able to live everywhere and anywhere; and he who has great duties to perform, which lay claim to all his strength, has, in this respect, a very limited choice. The influence of climate upon the bodily functions ... extends so far, that a blunder in the choice of locality and climate is able not only to alienate a man from his actual duty, but also to withhold it from him altogether, so that he never even comes face to face with it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“One of the most highly valued functions of used parents these days is to be the villains of their children’s lives, the people the child blames for any shortcomings or disappointments. But if your identity comes from your parents’ failings, then you remain forever a member of the child generation, stuck and unable to move on to an adulthood in which you identify yourself in terms of what you do, not what has been done to you.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)