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Respond to my Classmates’ Discussions by following the
instructions below:
1) Adding to their description of their special sense (new information).
2) Add to their plan for adapting to the emergency.
3) Comment on why you agree with their explanation of their disadvantage or
advantage.
4) Comment on why the loss of their special sense would lead to a greater
disadvantage or advantage. Explain your reasoning.
Discussion 1 (Stephanie) Minimum of 200 Words
The special sense that I have is hearing. The anatomy and physiology behind hearing is
hearing starts behind the outer ear. When a sound is made in the outer ear, vibrations,
and sound waves travel down the external auditory canal. After the canal strikes the
eardrum, the eardrum vibrates, and those vibrations pass into three bones in the middle
of the ear called ossicles. The ossicles amplify the sound and send the sound waves to
the inner ear and into the cochlea. More than 1.5 billion people worldwide suffer from
partial/complete deafness that is about 20% of the world population.
The emergency I chose was a fire. If a person was sleeping that is deaf and a fire broke
out in their house, they would have no way of hearing the fire and smoke alarms. Their
other senses would have to kick in and let know what is going on. Their smell would try
to wake them up by the smell of smoke and burning. Most people that are deaf have
special smoke alarms in their house that let off very strong strobe lights to wake them up
or alert them to a fire. Their vision be notified of the danger from the strong lights to
wake them up. When people are deaf, they also have special pads that are put under
their mattress that vibrate when there’s a fire in their house. Those pads would go off
when the fire alarms go off and vibrate under the person allowing their touch sense to
be notified. A person with a loss of hearing would be put at a disadvantage because they
would not be able to hear the fire alarms going off during a fire. Considering that hearing
is one of the main senses that we need all the other senses get heightened. For example,
your sight and smell will work harder to alert your body to the danger you are in. People
that are deaf would not know that they are in danger when sleeping and are less likely to
escape a fire unharmed if their other senses are not working. There are really no
advantages to not having hearing during a fire. They would not be able to hear the alarm
going off if they were sleeping, also they would not able to hear the stuff burning.
References:
NIH. (2022). How Do We Hear. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/how-do-wehear#:~:text=Sound%20waves%20enter%20the%20outer,malleus%2C%20incus%2C%2
0and%20stapes
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Discussion 2 (James) Minimum of 200 Words
The ability to smell is a complex sense that is important to animals and humans. In the
animal kingdom, the olfactory system helps animals find food, find their mates and
young, and informs them of danger and safety. In humans, the olfactory system is
connected to the limbic system and the cerebral cortex. Olfaction is the chemical
sensation of gaseous odorants or as most of us say the sense of smell. The sense of smell
begins with odorant molecules passing through the nasal passages and encountering the
receptors of the primary cilia of the olfactory sensory neurons. These neurons are
located on the roof of the nasal cavity at the cribriform plate. Bowman glands help the
sense of smell by secreting a serous fluid that warms, moistens, and traps air. This fluid
helps dissolve gaseous odorant particles. The neurons of the olfactory sense then travel
along cranial nerve I also known as the olfactory nerve to the cerebral cortex. The
cerebral cortex is responsible for the chemosensory process of smell. The smell of smell
develops around 30 weeks of gestation to a human fetus as evident by MRI’s that show
the olfactory bulbs. The sense of smell continues to develop until the age of 2.
The sense of smell in humans is a complex system that is related to the sense of taste,
the creation of memories and the experiencing of emotions. An example of this for me is
that whenever I smell the cologne Old Spice (the original one) I remember dancing with
my grandfather at the father-daughter dances in elementary school. My dad would be
next to us with one of my little sisters dancing.
Dysfunction of the sense of smell affects approximately 2% of people under the age of
65. Anosmia is the inability whether complete or partial to smell. The inability to
distinguish odorants apart from one another is known as olfactory agnosia. When
someone experiencing distortions in the perception of smells is called dyssomnias.
Certain smells can also trigger chemosensory hallucinations. Persons who also suffer
from any dysfunction of the olfactory system often suffer in ability to taste foods. The
most common cause of temporary or permanent dysfunction is the virus that causes
upper respiratory infections. Malformations are another major cause of dysfunction of
the olfactory system.
References
Branigan, B., & Tadi, P. (2022). Physiology, Olfactory. PubMed; StatPearls Publishing.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542239/#:~:text=The%20olfactory%20syste
m%20is%20at
