Chapter 8.

Special Senses
Special Senses
- Consist of the four traditional senses
o Smell
o Taste
o Sight
o Hearing
- Equilibrium is the fifth special sense, and its receptors are housed in the ear, along with the organ of hearing
Special Sense Receptors
- Eyes and ears: large, complex sensory organs
- Taste buds and olfactory epithelium: localized clusters of receptors

The Eye and Vision

- Vision is the sense that has been studied most and requires the most “learning” because the eyes appear to
delight in being fooled
- 70% of sensory receptors are in the eyes
- Optic tracts that carry information from the eyes to the brain are massive bundles that contain over a million
nerve fibers

Anatomy of the Eye

External and Accessory Structures
Adult eye
- Sphere that measures about 1 inch or 2.5 cm in diameter
- Only the anterior one-sixth of the eye’s surface can normally be
seen, the rest is enclosed and protected by a cushion of fat and
the walls of the bony orbit
- Accessory structures include the extrinsic eye muscles, eyelids,
conjunctiva, and lacrimal apparatus
Eyelids
- Protects the eyes anteriorly
- Meet at the medial (medial commissure) and lateral (lateral
commissure) corners of the eye called canthus
Eyelashes
- Also called “cilium”
- Projecting from the border
of each eyelid
Conjunctiva
- Lines the eyelids
- Covers part of the outer
surface of the eyeball
- Ends at the edge of the
cornea by fusing with the
corneal epithelium
- Secretes mucus which
helps lubricate the eyeball
and keeps it moist
Palpebral fissure
- The space between the eyelids in an open eye
Tarsal glands
 - Modified sebaceous glands associated with the eyelid edges
- Produce an oily secretion that lubricates the eyes
Ciliary glands
- Modified sweat glands
- Lie between the eyelashes
Lacrimal glands
- Located above the lateral end of each eye
- Continually release a dilute salt solution (tears) onto the anterior surface of the eyeball through several small
ducts
Lacrimal apparatus
- Consists of the lacrimal gland a number of ducts that drain the lacrimal secretions into the nasal activity
Lacrimal secretion
- Contains mucus, antibodies, and lysosome, an enzyme that destroys bacteria
- Cleanses and protects the eye surface as it moistens and lubricates it
- When it increases substantially, tears spill over the eyelids and fill the nasal cavities, causing congestion and
sniffles
o Happens when the eyes are irritated by foreign objects or chemicals and when we are emotionally
upset
o In the case of irritation, enhanced tearing acts to wash away or dilute the irritating substance
o Emotional tears or crying is important in reducing stress
Movement of Tears
1. Flush across the eyeball
2. Goes into the lacrimal canaliculi medially
3. Then into the lacrimal sac
4. And finally, into the nasolacrimal duct, which empties into the nasal cavity
Extrinsic Muscles of the Eye
- There are six extrinsic or external eye muscles attached to the outer surface of each eye
- Produce gross eye movements
- Make it possible for the eyes to follow a moving object
Homeostatic imbalance:
- Conjunctivitis
o Inflammation of the conjunctiva
o Reddened, irritated eyes
- Pinkeye
o Infectious form is highly contagious and caused by bacteria or viruses

Internal Structures: The Eyeball

Eyeball
- The eye itself
- A hollow sphere
o Humors
 Fill the interior of the eyeball
 Help maintain the eyeball’s shape
o Lens
 Main focusing apparatus
 Supported within the eye cavity, dividing it into two
chambers
- Its wall is composed of three layers
o Fibrous layer
o Vascular layer
o Sensory layer
Layers Forming the Wall of the Eyeball
1. Fibrous layer
o Outermost layer
o Consists of the protective sclera and the transparent cornea
 Sclera
 Thick, glistening white connective tissue
 Seen anteriorly as the “white of the eye”
 Cornea
 Crystal clear central anterior portion of the
fibrous layer
 Referred to as the “window” through which light
enters the eye
 Well supplied with nerve endings, mostly pain fibers
 When touched, blinking and increased tearing occur
 Most exposed part of the eye and vulnerable to damage but has extraordinary self-
repair ability
 Only tissue that is transplanted from one person to another without the worry of
rejection because it has no blood vessels and is beyond reach of the immune system
2. Vascular layer
 o Middle layer
o Has three distinguishable regions
 Choroid
 Most posterior
 Blood-rich nutritive tunic
 Contains a dark pigment that prevents light from scattering inside the eye
 Moving anteriorly, it is modified to form two smooth muscle structures, the ciliary
body and iris
 Ciliary body
 Where the lens is attached by a suspensory ligament called the ciliary zonule
 Iris
 Pigmented and has a rounded opening, the pupil, through which light passes
 Formed by circularly and radially arranged smooth muscle fibers
 Act like the diaphragm of a camera and regulates the amount of light entering the eye
so that we can see as clearly as possible in the available light
 In close vision and bright light, circular muscles contract and pupil constricts
 In distant vision and dim light, radial fibers contract and pupil enlarge or dilate
3. Sensory layer
o Retina
 Innermost sensory layer
 Delicate and two-layered
 Extends anteriorly only to the ciliary body
 Pigmented layer
 Outer layer of the retina
 Composed of pigmented cells that absorb light and prevent light from
scattering inside the eye and act as phagocytes to remove dead or damaged
receptor cells and store vitamin A needed for vision
 Neural layer
 Transparent inner layer of the retina
 Contains millions of receptor cells, the rods and cones, called photoreceptors
that respond to light
 Electrical signals pass from the photoreceptors via a two-way neuron chain (bipolar cells and
ganglion cells) before leaving the retina via the optic nerve as nerve impulses that are
transmitted to the optic cortex, resulting to vision
 Photoreceptor cells are distributed over the entire retina, except where the optic nerve
(composed of ganglion cell axons) leaves the eyeball, this site is called the optic disc or blind
spot
 When light from an object is focused on the optic disc, the object disappears from our
view and we cannot see it
 Rods and cones are not evenly distributed in the retina
 Rods
 Are most dense at the periphery or edge of the retina and decrease in number
as the center of the retina is approached
 Allow us to see in gray tones in dim light and provide our peripheral vision
 Cones
 Densest in the center of the retina and decrease in number toward the retinal
edge
 Discriminatory receptors that allow us to see the details of our world in color
under bright light conditions
 Has three varieties sensitive to wavelengths of visible light
i. Blue cones (420 nm): responds most vigorously to blue light
ii. Green cones (530 nm): responds most vigorously to green light
iii. Red cones (560 nm): responds to a range of wavelengths of light and
is the only cone population to respond to red light
 Impulses received at the same time from more than one type of cone by the
visual cortex are interpreted as intermediate colors
i. When we get simultaneous impulses from blue and red color
receptors, we see purple or violet tones
ii. When all three cones are stimulated, we see white
 iii. When red light shines into one eye and green in the other, we see
yellow
 Fovea centralis
 Lateral to each blind spot
 A tiny pit that contains only cones
 Area of greatest visual acuity, or point of sharpest vision
 Anything we wish to view critically is focused on here
Lens
- Focuses the light entering the eye to the retina
- A flexible biconvex crystal-like structure
- Held upright in the eye by a suspensory ligament, the ciliary zonule, attached to the ciliary body
- Divides the eyes into two segments or chambers
o Anterior (aqueous) segment
 Anterior to the lens
 Contains a clear watery fluid called aqueous humor
 Aqueous humor
 Similar to blood plasma
 Continually secreted by a special area of the choroid
 Helps maintain intraocular pressure or pressure inside the eye
 Provides nutrients for the avascular lens and cornea
 Reabsorbed into the venous blood through the scleral venous sinus or canal
of Schlemm, located at the junction of the sclera and cornea
o Posterior (vitreous) segment
 Posterior to the lens
 Filled with a gel-like substance called vitreous humor/body
 Vitreous humor
 Helps prevent the eyeball from collapsing inward by reinforcing it internally
Tonometer
- Instrument used to measure the intraocular pressure
o This examination should be performed yearly
on people over 40
 Could detect certain pathological
conditions, such as diabetes,
arteriosclerosis, and degeneration of
the optic nerve and retina
Ophthalmoscope
- Instrument that illuminates the interior of the eyeball
- Allows viewing and examination of the retina, optic
disc, and internal blood vessels at the fundus, the
posterior wall of the eye

Physiology of Vision
Pathway of Light through the Eye and Light
Refraction
- The speed changes and light rays are bent or refracted when light passes from one substance to another
substance with different density
- Light rays are bent in the eye as they encounter the cornea, aqueous humor, lens, and vitreous humor
o The refractive or bending power of the cornea and humors are constant
o That of the lens can be changed by changing its shape, making it more or less convex so that light can
properly be focused on the retina
 The greater the lens convexity or bulge, the more it bends the light
 The smaller the lens convexity or the flatter the lens, the less it bends the light
 Vision problems occur when a lens is too strong (overconverging) or too weak
(underconverging)
  Real image: image formed on the retina as a result of the lens’ light-bending activity which is
reversed from the left to right, upside down (inverted), and smaller than the object
- Light from a distant source (over 20 feet away) approaches the eye as parallel rays and the lens does not need
to change shape to focus properly on the retina
- Light from a close source tends to scatter and diverge or spread out and the lens must bulge more to make
close vision possible
o Accommodation: the ability of the eye to focus on close objects
o To achieve this, the ciliary body contracts to allow the lens to become more convex

Visual Fields and Visual Pathways to the Brain

- Axons carrying impulses from the retina are bundled together
at the posterior aspect of the eyeball and issue from the back
of the eye as the optic nerve
- Each side of the brain receives visual input from both eyes
o Lateral field of vision of the eye on its own side
o Medial field of the other eye
- Each eye sees a slightly different view but their visual fields
overlap quite a bit
o This results to humans having binocular vision
 Meaning “two-eyed vision”
 Provides for depth perception or three-
dimensional vision, as our visual cortex
fuses the two slightly different images
delivered by the two eyes
Optic chiasma
- Where the fibers from the medial side of each eye cross over
to the opposite side of the brain
Optic tracts
- The resulting fiber tracts
- Contain fibers from the lateral side of the eye on the same
side and the medial side of the opposite eye
- Synapse with neurons in the thalamus whose axons form the optic radiation, which runs to the occipital lobe
of the brain, there they synapse with the cortical cells and visual interpretation or seeing occurs
Eye Reflexes
- Proper eye function requires both the internal and external or extrinsic eye muscles
o Internal eye muscles
 Controlled by the autonomic nervous system
 Include those of the ciliary body, which alters lens curvature, and the radial and circular
muscles of the iris, which control pupil size
o External/extrinsic eye muscles
 Rectus and oblique muscles attached to the eyeball exterior
 Controlled by somatic fibers of cranial nerves III, IV, and VI
 Control eye movements and make it possible to follow moving objects
  Also responsible for convergence, the reflexive movement of the eyes medially when viewing
close objects
 When convergence occurs, both eyes are aimed toward the near object being viewed
- Reading requires almost continuous work by both sets of muscles
o Muscles of the ciliary body bring about the lens bulge
o Circular muscles of the iris produce the accommodation pupillary reflex
o Extrinsic muscles must converge the eyes and move them to follow the printed lines
- This is why long periods of reading tire the eyes and often result in eyestrain
o It is helpful to look up from time to time and stare into the distance to temporarily relax all the eye
muscles
Photopupillary reflex
- When the eyes are suddenly exposed to bright light
- Pupils immediately constrict
- Prevents excessively bright light from damaging the delicate photoreceptors
o Accommodation pupillary reflex
 Constricting of pupils when viewing close objects
 Provides more acute vision

The Ear: Hearing and Balance

- Fluids must be stirred to stimulate the receptors of the ear
o Sound vibrations move fluid to stimulate hearing receptors
o Gross movements of the head disturb fluids surrounding the balance organs
 Mechanoreceptors: receptors that respond to such physical forces
- Our hearing apparatus allows us to hear an extraordinary range of sound
- Our highly sensitive equilibrium receptors keep our nervous system continually up to date on the position and
movements of the head
o Without this information, it would be impossible to maintain balance

Anatomy of the Ear

- The ear is divided into three major areas
o External or outer ear: hearing only
o Middle ear: hearing only
o Internal or inner ear: equilibrium and hearing

External (Outer) Ear

- Composed of the
Homeostatic Imbalances
Night blindness
- Hindered ability to see at night due to interference with rod function
- Dangerously impairs the ability to drive safely at night
- Most common cause is prolonged vitamin A deficiency which results in deterioration of the neural retina
o Vitamin A
 One of the building blocks of the pigments the photoreceptor cells need to respond to light
 Supplements restore function if taken before degenerative changes occur
Color blindness
- Lack of all three cone types
- Occurs almost exclusively in males because the genes regulating color visions are on the X sex chromosome
(females)
Partial color blindness
- Lack of one cone type
- Most common is the lack of red or green receptors which leads to two varieties of red-green color blindness
Cataracts
- Results from lens becoming increasingly hard and opaque due to aging, diabetes mellitus, frequent exposure
to intense sunlight, and heavy smoking
- Cause vision to become hazy and distorted
- Eventually cause blindness
- Treatment is either surgical removal of the lens and replacement with a lens implant or special cataract glasses
Glaucoma
- Vision going gray
- Steals sight slowly and painlessly until damage is done
- Causes pain and possible blindness unless detected early
- Caused by blockage in drainage of aqueous humor with fluid backing up like a clogged sink which increases
pressure in the eye and compress the delicate retina and optic nerve
- Later signs include seeing halos around lights, headaches, and blurred vision
- Commonly treated with eyedrops that increase the rate of aqueous humor drainage
- Could also be treated with laser or surgical enlargement of the drainage channel
Hemianopia
- Loss of the same side of the visual field of both eyes
- Not being able to see things past the middle of the visual field on either the right or left side, depending on the
site of the CVA
- Results from damage to the visual cortex on one side only
- Affected individuals should be carefully attended and warned of objects in the nonfunctional or nonseeing
side of the visual field