Baroreceptors

Words: 1780
Pages: 8

Trigger: You and your two friends work out a system to cheat on your physiology test. (DO NOT DO THIS. This is strictly a make believe story.) The genius friend says she will put one finger on your back for A and two for B. You feel one finger and mark down A and get the question wrong, however your friend feels two and answers correctly. You both were touched in the same location with the same intensity and duration. Why did you misinterpret the touch and your friend didn’t? Explain using a mechanistic explanation. (LG: 4,5,6)
When you someone touches your back with the minimum stimulus to activate a receptor, this causes the mechanoreceptors on your skin to fire, or specifically your baroreceptors. Once these receptors have received a signal this changes the membrane potential of the cell and causes an action potential. Due to modality and location the brain interprets a signal coming from your back as a touch and coming from that certain location. The reason your friend and yourself did not interpret the same stimulus will be due to the
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Norepinephrine, which is released by your SNS, increases ion flow through the If and aalcium channels in the autorythmic cells which are found in the SA node. More rapid cation entry into the autorythmic cells speeds up the rate of the depolarization allowing the cell to reach threshold faster which in turn increases the rate of action potentials firing. When these action potentials increase this spreads to the contractile cells through gap junctions which in turn causes them to contract at a faster rate, increasing heart rate. When heart rate increases this will increase the cardiac output due to the relationship HRxSV=CO. When you increase cardicac output you also increase pressure because cardiac output is directly proportional to pressure. Therefore when B1 receptors are activated on the SA node the immediate affect is an increase in pressure.