Taste and Smell
Meredith and Leanna
Significance of Signals and Where
they Originate
• Sensory receptors respond to stimuli and transmit data
about them to the brain. Elsewhere in the body, more
specialized receptors detect, smell, and taste.
• acts as a sensory receptor which responds to a chemical
substance and generates a biological signal
• Chemoreception relies on chemicals that act as signals to
regulate cell function, without the chemical necessarily
being taken into the cell for metabolic purposes.
Types of Signals That are Initiated
and Their Target
• Sense of smell collects odorants from the environment
and transducing them into neural signals
• Taste signals are initiated by chemical stimulation of
the taste buds on tongue and pharynx
• 1 of the 3 possible target flavorants, gustatory alone,
olfactory alone, or mixture
Specific Transduction Pathway
and Desired Response
• The pattern of membrane potential change include
depolarization, depolarization followed by
hyperpolarization, or only hyperpolarization. Action
potentials in the taste receptor cells lead to an
increase Ca2+ influx. In response to this cation,
neurotransmitter is released, which produces synaptic
potentials in the dendrites of the sensory nerves and
action potentials in afferent nerve fibers.
Disease
Hyposmia
• Reduced ability to smell and detect odors
• Caused by nasal polyps, a growth in the nasal
passage
• Treatments- surgery
Types of Feedback
• Positive feedback Influences the continued
activity or productivity of that system by
allowing us to interpret different sugars and
acids.
• Negative feedback is a mechanism for
physiology function in living things.