Videos: Senses

Taste and Smell

This video walks you through the way we experience our major special senses. It all boils down to one thing: sensory cells translating chemical, electromagnetic, and mechanical stimuli into action potentials that our nervous system can make sense of. Today we’re focusing on smell (olfaction) and taste (gustation), which are chemical senses that call on chemoreceptors. As usual, we’ll begin with a quick look at how these things can go wrong.

Hearing and Balance

This video continues the journey through sensory systems with a look at how your sense of hearing works. We follow sounds as they work there way into the ear where they are registered and transformed into action potentials. This mechanism not only helps you hear but also helps maintain your equilibrium.