Special Senses

Pick one special sense (vision, audition, gustation, olfaction, equilibrium) and prepare a written report of at least 1000 words answering the following bullet points: What cranial nerve(s) is(are) associated with your chosen special sense? Describe how the anatomy of your chosen special sense organ relates to its physiology. Describe how signal transduction occurs in your chosen special sense organ. Distinguish how it is different from signal transduction in a somatic peripheral sensory nerve. Describe how sensory stimuli from your chosen special sense can trigger autonomic activation. Discuss the downstream effects at the organ and organismal levels. Discuss physiological consequences that can occur as a result of homeostatic imbalances in your chosen special sense organ. Your paper should be formatted as a proper research paper with an introduction and conclusion. Do not simply follow the bullet points above, but really think about what you have learned and how that relates to other material we have covered, and knowledge you have from other courses you may have taken. The Research and Report assignments in this course are capstone assignments for each module. You should be integrating everything that you learned in the textbook, explorations, discussions, and lab activities into your papers.