Receptors

Department of Physiology,
MAPIMS
 Learning Objectives
• At the end of these sessions, student must be able to
• Define receptors. Classify receptors.
• Describe the receptors classified based on stimulus.
• Briefly describe the structure and function of Pacinian
corpuscles.
• Describe the Mechanism of Genesis of Receptor
Potential.
• Describe the properties of receptors.
 Introduction

Animals including us must be able to:

- find food
- avoid predators
- detect & locate mates
- be able to orient & move through their environment
 Survival depends upon Sensation & Perception
 Sensation is the basic recognition of stimulus
(Awareness of changes in the internal & external
environment).
 Esthesia ------ Feeling a sensation.
 Anaesthesia ---- Absence of sensation
 Parasthesia ------ Abnormal sensation
Dysesthesia / Allodynia
 Perception is the conscious interpretation of those
stimuli
CLASSIFICATION OF SENSES
• Superficial senses: Cutaneous senses from
skin, conjunctiva and cornea.
• Deep senses from muscles, tendons and
joints.
• Visceral senses from the internal environment
of the body.
• Special senses are vision, hearing, smell,
taste, and rotational acceleration and linear
acceleration.
Classification of Sensations

Sensation

General Special

Somatic Visceral Vision

Superficial Deep Baro Chemo Smell

Touch Pain Audition

Temperature Proprioception
Taste
Pain
RECEPTORS (sensory receptors)
• DEFINITION: They are the endings of the sensory
nerves.

• They are called transducers, because they convert

all the senses into action potentials.

When they are surrounded with non neuronal cells,

sensory receptors are called as sense organs.
Receptors
 Basic sensory end organ

 Specialized afferent nerve endings

 Biological transducers
 Informer of the internal & external environment to
the CNS

 We access information about the environment via our

sensory organs (vision, hearing, smell, touch, etc) &
nervous system
From Stimulus to Perception
Classification of receptors

• Based on Location

• By adequate stimulus / nature of

stimulus
 Based on location

• Exteroceptors

• Proprioceptors

• Interoceptors

• Teleceptors
1. Teleceptors: Respond to stimuli at a
distance.
Example: vision, hearing, and smell.

2. Exteroceptors: Respond to stimuli in the

external environment near at hand (on the
body surface).
Example: Cutaneous receptors of the skin,
conjunctiva and cornea.
• 3. Interoceptors: Respond to stimuli in
the internal environment of the body.

Example: baroreceptors, chemoreceptors,

osmoreceptors and stretch receptors.

• 4. Proprioceptors: Provides information

about the position of the body and its
parts, in the space.
Example: Muscle spindle, Golgi tendon
organ and vestibular apparatus.
Exteroceptors
Detect stimuli near the outer surface of the body

Cutaneous receptors: Include those from the skin that

respond to cold, warmth, touch, pain, tickle, itch,
pressure and vibration
 Interoceptors
• Detect stimuli from inside the body
• Chemoreceptors - Include receptors that respond to pH,

O2 level in arterial blood, CO2 concentration

• Osmoreceptors - Osmolality of body fluids

• Stretch receptors - Also includes distention & spasm (e.g., gut), and flow (e.g.,
urethra)

• Baroreceptors & Visceral pain receptors

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 Proprioceptors
Provide a sense of body position – self receptors

Located in skeletal muscles, tendons, ligaments

& joint capsules

Sensitive to muscle stretch, muscle tone, position

& angle of joints

e.g: Muscle spindle, Golgi tendon organ, Crista &

macula of vestibular apparatus
Teleceptors

• Collect Information present far away

from the body.

• Distance receivers ---- May also include special

receptors for hearing, vision, Smell & taste
(Chemo receptors).
Based on adequate stimulus/nature of stimuli

• Mechanoreceptors – Example: Pacinian corpuscle

(for touch and pressure).
• Thermoreceptors – 2 types (Warmth & Cold)
Active in change in temperature (Broad range)
• Nociceptors – Respond to painful stimuli-- tissue
damage (pain), excess heat
• Photoreceptors/Electromagnetic receptors:– light
(Photons)---- Rods & Cones.
• Chemoreceptors – Respond to chemical stimuli-
Taste & Olfactory receptors
Mechanoceptors
•Respond to application of a mechanical stimulus.
•Ex: touching / stroking the skin
•3 categories:
•Expanded endings – Merkel’s disc & Ruffini
endings
•Encapsulated endings -- Pacinian corpuscle, Meissner’s
corpuscle & Krause’s end bulb
•Naked nerve endings – All 4 cutaneous modalities (touch,
temperature, pain, pressure )
 Important mechanoreceptors
 Pacinian corpuscle
- Vibration & pressure
 Meissner’s corpuscle
– touch RAPIDLY
 Krause’s end bulb adapting
- cold
 Merkel’s disk
– pressure
 Ruffini’s end organ SLOW
adapting
– warmth & Crude touch
 Free nerve ending

– pain
Pacinian corpuscle
 Largest and rapidly adopting mechanoreceptor

 Located in : Skin & Deep tissue

 Structure : concentric layers (lamellae) much like onion.

 Function : Vibration (High frequency), & pressure

 Distal end of the axon – Actual transducer,

 Genesis of receptor potential

RECEPTOR POTENTIAL
MECHANISM OF TRANSDUCTION IN THE
RECEPTORS
Details are not known for all receptors.
Pacinian corpuscles, (the Cutaneous touch receptors) because
of their relatively large size and accessibility, has been studied
in detail.
Receptor potential

• Receptor potential / Generator potential

• Nonpropagated depolarizing potential that resembles EPSP.
• Pacinian corpuscle ---
• Large size – Best studied receptor
• Lamellae is not required
• Unmyelinated nerve terminal
MECHANISM OF TRANSDUCTION
• When generator potential is about 10 mV, action potential
is formed in the first node of the sensory neuron.

• When more pressure is applied, more and more Na+

channels get opened. Generator potential becomes much
larger.

• More and more action potentials are produced in the sensory

neuron and conducted to CNS.
 MECHANISM OF TRANSDUCTION

• Pressure applied on the capsule of the pacinian corpuscle.

• Na+ channels in the unmyelinated nerve ending open.
• Na+ influx into the unmyelinated nerve ending.
• Non propagated depolarisation occurs. This depolarization is
called as Generator potential or Receptor potential).
 Receptor potential

• Threshold stimulus applied to Pacinian Corpuscle  Generator

potential & action potential can be obtained
• Removal of the lamella  Generator potential & action potential
can be obtained
Receptor potential
• 1st node of Ranvier is blocked  Only generator potential
obtained ----- No AP – local circuit current between the nerve
terminal & the 1st node of Ranvier is disrupted.

• Destruction of nerve terminal  No response

• Nerve terminal  should be present for Generator potential.
• 1st node of Ranvier is  Action potential
• 1st node summates the local effects.
PROPERTIES OF RECEPTORS
Properties of Receptors

• Specificity / Adequate Stimulus

• Transducer Property / Generator potential

• Doctrine Of Specific Nerve Energies

• Law Of Projection

• Adaptation

• Intensity Discrimination
Specificity / Adequate stimulus

Adequate stimulus:
The particular form of energy to which a receptor is most
sensitive is called as adequate stimulus.
Thus, a sensory receptor is said to be specific for a specific
stimulus.
However, other stimuli can also stimulate the sensory
receptor, but the strength of the stimulus required is
alarmingly enormous.
Example: Light is the adequate stimulus for rods and
cones.
Muller’s Doctrine of specific nerve energies
• Doctrine of specific nerve energies:
• There is a specific pathway from the sensory receptor to
sensory cortex.
• Thus, the sensation evoked depends upon that particular part of
the brain getting activated by the specific sensory pathway, no
matter how or where the particular pathway is stimulated along
its course to the cortex.
• During development, the nerve fibres synapse with specific
neurons in the brain.
• Brain associates a signal coming from a specific group of
receptors to a specific modality of sensation .
 Law of Projection
• Specific sensory pathways from sense organs to cortex
• No matter where the sensory pathway is stimulated along its
course to cortex, the sensation formed is referrd to the locality
of the receptor
e.g. Phantom limb & Phantom pain.

• Phantom pain & Phantom limb

A person whose limb is amputated often complains of pain in the
limb which is not present. This phenomenon of pain in an absent
limb is referred Phantom limb and pain is called Phantom pain .
Adaptation
• When a stimulus of constant strength is applied and
maintained to a receptor, the frequency of action potentials
in the sensory neuron keeps decreasing. This is called
adaptation or desensitization.

• Thus, receptors are also classified as

1. Rapidly adapting receptors.
2. Slowly adapting receptors. (generally these are
protective, like pain receptors).
 Adaptation
Property of the receptor where an initial high rate of response (action
potentials) is followed by a lower response rate with a continued
stimulus. E.g. Pacinian corpuscle

• Tonic vs. Phasic receptors

• Tonic (adapts slowly)
• Phasic (adapts rapidly) –
 Intensity Discrimination
• The intensity of the stimulus is informed to the brain by two ways:
- By varying the frequency of action potentials in a receptor.
- By varying the number of receptors activated.
Weber-Fechner law - the magnitude of sensation is proportional to
the log of intensity of the stimulus.
As the sensory intensity increases, there is decrease in ability to
discriminate small changes.
E.g., hold 30 g weight, detect 1 g increase.
Hold 300 g weight, detect 30 g increase.
RECRUITMENT OF
SENSORY UNITS
• Sensory unit: A single sensory neuron and all its branches.
• Receptive field of a sensory unit:
This is the area from which a stimulus produces a response in that unit.
Recruitment of sensory units:
When the strength of a stimulus is increased

it spreads over a large area.

Therefore, the stimulus activates the sensory unit in contact with it and the
sensory units near by.
• Such activation of near­by sensory units, by increasing strength of stimulus
is called as recruitment of sensory units.