Expert: Walter Hintz - 10/15/2007

Question
Summarize the types of messages the senses recieve?

When you have a cold, why is it hard to taste food.

Why might an ear infextion lead to problems with balance.

im trying to fill out a study guide and I am completly stumped. :[


thanks so much.
Kylie.

Answer
It depends upon the sense.  With vision the eye receives light waves and with hearing the ears receive sound waves. Taste and smell are attuned to chemical changes and touch involves changes in pressure and temperature.  It is important to remember that sensory mechanisms are stimulated only be changes.
A cold does not affect the taste of food but the flavor and flavor depends upon both taste and smell.  When the nose is blocked or irritated the smell sense is lost.  All your detect then are the four tastes
Ear infections can spread to the inner ear.  The cochlea is a balance mechanism.