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Sensory receptors
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Is a sensory nerve ending that responds to a stimulus in the internal or external environment of an organism.
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Receptor potential
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A type of graded potential, is the transmembrane potential difference produced by activation of a sensory receptor.
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Sensation
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Is interpretation of sensory nerve impulses by the brain as an awareness of an internal or external event; for example feeling heat on your skin.
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Adaptation
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Means that the magnitude of the receptor potential decreases over a period in response to a continuous stimulus.
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General Sense Organs
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A specialized organ or structure, such as the eye, ear, tongue, nose, or skin, where sensory neurons are concentrated and which functions as a receptor.
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Somatic senses
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The faculty of bodily perception; sensory systems associated with the body; includes skin senses and proprioception and the internal organs.
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Two-Point Discrimination
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Is the ability to discern that two nearby objects touching the skin are truly two distinct points, not one.
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Exteroceptors
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Are receptors located on or very near the body surface and respond most frequently to external stimulus that arises external to the body.
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Cutaneous receptors
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Are the types of sensory receptor found in the dermis or epidermis. They are a part of the somatosensory system.
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Visceroceptors
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Group of receptors that includes those located in visceral organs. Their stimulation gives rise to poorly localized and ill-defined sensations or to pain.
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Proprioceptors
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A sensory receptor that receives stimuli from within the body, especially one that responds to position and movement.
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Mechanorecptors
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Any of the sense organs that respond to vibration, stretching, pressure, or other mechanical stimuli.
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Chemoreceptors
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Receptors of this nature are activated by the amount or changing concentration of chemicals. For example, taste buds.
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Thermoreceptors
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A sensory receptor that responds to changes in either heat and cold.
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Nociceptors
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This type of receptor is activated by intense stimuli of any type that results in tissue damage. The sensation produced is one of pain.
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