Receptors Detect Stimuli

Your body can respond to changes in the environment

Receptors can detect changes and pass the information to other parts of the body.

Definition: A stimulus is any information your body receives and responds to.

We regularly are responding to changes without even realising it!

When you are hungry or thirsty your body is communicating with your brain to tell you to find food or water.

This is similar when you have a headache or are tired. 

Our body's respond to external stimuli eg. sights, sounds or touch

Our body's respond to internal stimuli  eg. hunger, thirst and fatigue

Sight can tell us more about the world than any other sense.

Your pupils can change size to control the amount of light which can enter the eye.

The photo-receptor cells at the back of the eye transform light into nerve signals for your brain.

It's not your eyes which allow you to see, it's your brain!

Sounds cause particles in the air to vibrate - causing your eardrum to vibrate.

Our ears have tiny bones that detect vibrations.

Ears are also important for balance. A common symptom of a ear infection is problems with balance. Balance being one of the “extra” senses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1m4h79JZso 

Your tongue is the sense organ that detects chemicals  

Inside the grooves there are many taste buds which are taste receptors.

Our Smell depends on chemical receptors found in each of our nostrils.

There are millions of smell receptors inside our nose, they detect chemicals in the air.

Touch is felt all over the body through your skin.

The skin allows us to have the sense of touch, it detects changes in temperature, pressure and pain

Information is collected by these receptors and sent to the brain for processing