Advice

• Training
• Nutrition
• Endocrinology
• Exercise Physiology
• Genetic Make Up
• Sex/Libido Stimulants
• Diets
• Anatomy
  • endocrine system
  • major sense organs
  • the immune system

Advice :: Anatomy :: Major Sense Organs

Sight
Rays of light enter the eyeball through the cornea, pass through the lens and vitreous humor to the fovea centralis; the most sensitive region of the retina. This pathway is called the visual axis. By means of a complex system of muscles and nerves, the brain insures that two visual axes remain parallel. The exception is when the eyes converge to read or study a close object.

Smell
The olfactory mucous membrane, a small area in the nasal cavity, contains 10 - 20 millions olfactory cells, each tipped by 10 - 20 tiny hairs. When air containing odorous molecules reaches the olfactory cells, certain molecules fit certain receptors on the hairs; nervous signals are then sent to the brain, where they are interpreted as odours.

Taste
The nervous signals responsible for our sense of taste originate in the taste buds. These microscopic structures are most numerous in the grooves around the vallate papillae of the tongue. Any substance tasted must first dissolve in saliva and then percolate through tiny pores to the hair receptors of the taste bud. These are thought to be specialised receptors for each of the basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty and bitter. All flavours are made up of combinations of these four tastes.

Hearing
Hearing begins when sound waves reach the eardrum; the vibrations pass through the ossicles and displace fluid within the cochlea. The fluid stimulates hair cells of the organ of Corti to send signals to the brain. The semicircular canals monitor balance by a similar mechanics.