Main description:

This book presents a distillation of many years of investigation by the author and his associates on the problem of sensory reception. Both our own data and data from the scientific literature on the electron microscopy, cytochemistry, biochemistry and electrophysiology of the organs of vision, taste, smell, hearing and gravitation, are presented to show that the evolution of the sense organs of all animals on our planet is based on a receptor cell equipped with a motile antenna, a biological recorder of information concerning certain types of energy reaching the animal from the environment. The conversion or encoding of this energy into information is effected with the aid of special protein molecules positioned in the plasma membrane of the antennae. The action of the unit of energy of a stimulus on such a specific protein molecule causes a change of shape, and this is the basis of the trigger mechanism of reception, leading to the stimulation of the receptor cell and the transmission of the information encoded in this cell in the form of nerve impulses to the central nervous system. The present monograph summarizes over 30 years of working experience by the author and his associates in the field of evolution of sense organs. Material is used here from his earlier monographs: The Retina of the Eye Vertebrates, 1947, The Morphology of the Organ of Smell, 1957, The Organ of Corti: Its Histophy siology and Histochemistry, 1964, written jointly with L. K.

Contents:

The Problem of Reception and the Evolution of the Cytological and Molecular Organization of Sense Organs.- I Structure and Development of Biological Membranes.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Structure and Chemical Composition of Membranes.- 3. Development, Differentiation and Growth of Membranes.- 4. Conclusion.- II Ultrastructural and Molecular Organization of Antennae.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Microvilli.- 3. Stereocilia.- 4. Flagella and Cilia (Kinocilia).- 5. Conclusion.- III Structural and Cytochemical Organization of Synapses.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Organization of Synapses.- 3. Synapses with Chemical Transmission.- 4. Ephaptic (Electrogenous) Synapses.- 5. Conclusion.- IV Vision.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Molecular Evolution of the Visual Pigment.- 3. Function of Rhodopsin.- 4. Development of the Visual Cell.- 5. Structural, Cytochemical and Functional Organization of Visual Cell.- A. Photoreceptors of Vertebrates.- B. Biopotentials of the Visual Cell.- C. Insect Photoreceptors.- D. Photoreceptors of Cephalopod Molluscs.- E. Color Vision in Vertebrates and Insects.- 6. Conclusion.- V Taste.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Chemical Basis of the Action of Gustatory Substances and Theories of Taste.- A. Chemical Basis of the Action of a Saline Stimulus.- B. Chemical Basis of the Action of an Acid Stimulus.- C. Chemical Basis of the Action of a Sweet Stimulus.- D. Chemical Basis of the Action of a Bitter Stimulus.- E. Theories of Taste.- 3. Sweet-Sensitive and Bitter-Sensitive Proteins.- 4. Structural Organization of Gustatory Receptor Cells of Vertebrates.- 5. Structural Organization of Contact Chemoreceptor (Gustatory) Sensillae of Insects.- 6. Cytochemical Organization of Taste Buds and Function of Taste Cells.- 7. Electrophysiological Investigations.- 8. Conclusion.- VI Smell.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Structure of Odorant Molecules. The Problem of Their Interaction with Olfactory Cells. Theories of Smell.- 3. Structural and Cytochemical Organization of the Olfactory Cells of Vertebrates.- 4. Functional Shifts of the Structural and Cytochemical Organization of Olfactory Cells in Vertebrates.- 5. Structural Organization of Olfactory Cells of Insects.- 6. Electrophysiological Investigations.- 7. Conclusion.- VII Hearing.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Auditory Stimulus, its Nonspecific and Specific Effect, and the Evolution of Auditory Receptor Mechanisms.- 3. Theories of Hearing.- 4. Structural and Cytochemical Organization of Hair Cells in the Organ of Corti in Birds.- 5. Structural and Cytochemical Organization of Hair Cells of Organ of Corti in Mammals.- 6. Structural Organization of Receptor Cells of Chordotonal Sensilla in Insects.- 7. Electrophysiological Studies.- 8. Conclusion.- VIII Gravity Reception.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Gravitational Stimulus.- 3. Evolution of the Structural and Functional Organization of the Gravireceptor of Unicellular, Invertebrate and Protochordate Organisms.- 4. Evolution of the Structural and Functional Organization of Gravireceptor of Vertebrates.- 5. Conclusion.- IX The Molecular Theory of Sensory Reception.- References.