Sensory System

Sensory organs (skins, tongue and eye)

The sensory system is a network of sensory nerves and tissues that enable the body to receive information about its surroundings. 

Sensory systems include organs, tissues, and cells that receive stimuli from the environment and send this information to the brain for processing.

Sensory receptors are specialized neurons in the skin, eyes, ears, nose, tongue and other parts of the body that convert external stimuli (sight, sound, smell, taste and touch) into signals that are sent to the brain via nerves. The nerves carry these signals to the higher sensory centers in the central nervous system, where they are interpreted. 

Upon interpretation of the sensory signals, the CNS determines the state of the tissue and the body, which then affects what kind of effector response it will send back to those tissues. For example, when it’s cold outside, the bodily response is to produce goosebumps on the skin.

Learn the anatomy and physiology of sensory systems in humans with a focus on the special senses such as vision, hearing, taste and touch with our interactive tutorials below.

An image showing the Dorsal stream of the Visual Areas (Primary visual cortex, Secondary visual cortex, inferotemporal area, and Posterior partial area) highlighted, lateral and sagittal view of the brain
Visual Cortex Areas

Visual Cortex Areas; explained beautifully in an illustrated and interactive way.
An image showing the sensory pathway of the somatic nervous system which consists of 3 neurons, first, second and third sensory neurons
Pain pathway: interactive diagram

Pain or Nociception Pathway; explained beautifully in an illustrated and interactive way.
The neuronal connection from the sensory corpuscles of the skin to the spinal cord and the brain.
Touch Pathway

Touch Pathway; explained beautifully in an illustrated and interactive way.
An image showing the parts of the retina and the visual pathway
Retina: anatomy and layers

Retina (Anatomy and physiology); explained beautifully in an illustrated and interactive way.
A sagittal of the head and expanded view of mucosa
Olfactory epithelium: structure and function

The olfactory mucosa detects odor-producing chemicals. The epithelium layer includes specialized nerve cells and non-motile cilia to provide a binding site for odorants. Mucus covers the receptor cilia where odorants dissolve and bind to cilia receptors. The binding produces an electrochemical impulse.