sensory receptors
What feels the world
Sensory receptors are specialized cells or nerve endings that detect stimuli from the environment or within the body.
They convert physical or chemical signals—light, pressure, temperature, sound, taste—into electrical impulses the nervous system can interpret.
Different receptors respond to different stimuli: photoreceptors in the eye detect light, mechanoreceptors in skin detect touch and pressure, chemoreceptors detect taste and smell.
Pain receptors in the skin alert us to potential tissue damage.
- chemoreceptorsCells detecting molecular stimuli
- photoreceptorsCells sensing light
- mechanoreceptorsSensory cells detecting pressure
- pain receptorsNeurons sensing tissue damage
- nerve endingsPeripheral neural sensors
nerve impulses · kinesthesia · proprioceptors · haptic feedback · fingertips · touch · tongue · cochlea · threshold · tingling · pain · skin · signals · stimulus · neurons · reflex · receptors · smell
- sensessight, smell, taste, hearing, touch
- skinepidermis, dermis, skin, cutis, pores
- receptorsdopamine receptors, adrenergic receptors, GABA receptors, taste receptors, photoreceptors
- perceptionsee, vision, seeing, senses, observing
- insect anatomyabdomen, antennae, thorax, exoskeleton, head
- nervesperipheral nerves, peripheral nerve, cranial nerves, cranial nerve, spinal nerves
sensory receptorseffectors
Organs executing neural commands
motor neurons · muscle fibers · glands · smooth muscle · skeletal muscle
sensory receptorsbrain
Seat of cognition
central nervous system · cerebral cortex · spinal cord · thalamus · cerebrum
sense, receive, sensitive, sensation, sensible, sensitivity, sensing, sensory, sensibly