28 Post-Lab Questions for Special Senses
Gillian Backus; Heidi W. Wangerin; and Paula Rodgers
Post-Lab Questions: Special Senses Lab
Name: ________________________
Lab Checkout:
When you finish the lab, please clean up your lab space and put away your materials neatly in the tray. Once you have thoroughly cleaned, washed, and dried your lab table, please get your instructor’s initials to check-out of lab.
- Lab bench clean, washed, and dried
- Materials put away properly and organized in trays
- Microscope properly put away
Lab completed (% completed = ______ %) Instructor initials: ______________
PART I: Anatomy and Physiology of the Eye
Activity 1: The Structure and Function of the Eye
1. From the Cranial Nerves lab, review the 12 pairs of cranial nerves. List the names and roman numerals for the three motor cranial nerves associated with eye movement.
2. Dr. Reddy shines a pen light into Emran’s eye. Label and list in order the eye structures that light passes through as it passes the cornea until it reaches the photoreceptors in the retina. You should include at least 6
terms in your response.
3. From the retina, list the following structures in order as the action potential travels from the photoreceptors to the brain:
___ bipolar cells
___ ganglion cells
___ occipital lobe
___ optic chiasma
___ optic nerve
___ photoreceptor cells
___ thalamus
Activity 3: Vision Tests
4. Describe where in the eye the blind spot is located. Why can’t this region convey any visual information?
5. Dr. Reddy’s patient has 20/30 vision in both eyes. Explain what these numbers mean.
6. Is this considered “good” vision or bad vision?
7. Based on this result, is this patient nearsighted, farsighted, or normal?
8. Which test determine colorblindness?
9. What is a possible cause of colorblindness?
10. Why does the near point of accommodation decrease as a person ages?
11. Define intraocular pressure and how it relates to the condition of glaucoma.
12. Do the results of Emran’s ocular tonicity test suggest glaucoma?
13. Why can glaucoma lead to a loss of vision?
PART II: The Anatomy and Physiology of the Ear
Activity 4: The Anatomy and Physiology of the Ear
14. Once sound waves trigger an action potential in the hair cells, the action potential travels along the ______________________ nerve (Cranial Nerve # ____) from the inner ear to the main relay station in the brain, called the ____________________. From there, myelinated neurons carry the sensory impulse to the __________________ lobe of the cerebral cortex.
Activity 5: Conduction vs. Sensorineural Deafness
15. Name the two types of deafness explored in this lab.
16. List at least two parts of the ear that could be involved with conduction deafness.
Activity 6: The Romberg Test
17. What part(s) of the ear play(s) a role in balance and equilibrium?
18. When you are sick, what causes your sense of smell and taste to be blunted, and your hearing to be muffled?
19. Some people experience “car sickness” when reading in a moving car. Given what you have learned about the senses, explain how this can happen.
