So nice and all that sort of rot, but dudette, where is your question?
2006-08-05 02:28:24
·
answer #1
·
answered by blind_chameleon 5
·
0⤊
0⤋
The brain functions because of action potentials. The brain is mapped out by region. Certain cells for sensory/motor functions (parietal region), some to maintain homeostasis (hypothalamus in the midbrain), some to carry on metabolic functions we are not even aware of like breathing or our heart beating (the medulla oblongata). Anyway, I'll just give you sensory functions since you also asked about the eye and ear. The eye is made up of a few things, but basically as the light passes through the lens and so forth it hit the retina, at the back of the eye. The retina contains photoreceptor cells (rods which see black and white, and cones which see color of various frequencies). When color of a specific frequency hits a cone which responds to that specific light frequency it will illicit a stimulation response. It will pass the pass this signal to sensory neuron which will send a signal (in the form of an action potential) to the visual cortex (in the occipital lobe of the brain). What is amazing for the eye, is that our visual cortex sort of responds as a topographical map (but inverted) of what we see. Positioning and patterns of the things we see, stimulate our brain cells in a similar pattern. Anyway, another thing to note is that all action potentials are the same, they only vary in frequency which makse us experience things more intensly, but each action potential is the same, it is not more or less intense ever. So red light is not seen as red per say, but rather that red light illicits and action potential from a photoreceptor and that signal is transmitted to the part of the brain which will interpret the signal to mean red. It's like if you had a wire, and you sent an electrical current down this wire. The wire can be hooked up to a stereo, to a hairdryer, or to a television, it doesn't matter because the electricity is the same, but the end destination is different, and that is what makes the difference in outcome, or in this case, in our perceptions.
Now for the ear. It basically works in a similar fasion. In this case there are hair cells in the inner ear. Sound exists as longitudinal waves, which move because they push the air in a certain way. So, as the sound pushes the air into our ear, at its specific frequency, it will push against our middle ear bones which pound on the inner-ear's membrane. The inner ear is filled with fluid and so the vibrations of this membrane pushes the fluid in a pattern within our inner ear. Depending on the frequency, certain hair cells will be stimulated. Actaully the hair cells are arranged in order, sort of like a piano. I think it is actually the higher frequencies close to the membrane, and the lower frequencies farther away (because of wavelengths). Anyway, again, each hair cell will give off an action potential (of the same intensity) and it will correspond to certain areas of the brain (our auditory cortex in the temporal lobe).
The heart I know less about. It is controlled by the sinoatrial node (the pacemaker of the heart), and it passes an electrical current intot he AV node and I don't remember the rest. Anyway, it controls itself by giving itself a short electrical burst which makes it beat. The blood flow starts out collecting the deoxygentated blood in the right atrium where it is then pushed into the right ventricle. The right ventrical sends it out of the heart via the pulmonary artery which leads this blood to the lungs. In the lung capillary beds, the deoxygenated blood exchanges CO2 for O2. The O2 binds to the hemoglobin on the erythrocytes (red blood cells), and this oxygenated blood returns to the left atrium of the heart via the pulmonary veins. It then goes into the left ventricle where it is pushed out of the heart into the ascending and descending aorta where it will travel to the body's tissues.
2006-08-05 20:12:40
·
answer #2
·
answered by Stephanie S 6
·
0⤊
0⤋
my advice to you, is to shi t in one hand and make demands in the other and see which one fills up first.
2006-08-05 09:30:20
·
answer #3
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋