Ears Electroreceptors Thermoreceptors Photoreceptors Invertebrate eyes Application Discussion Reflection Lecture Sensory nerve cells are transducers . They change one form of energy to electrochemical energy often highly amplified. They are specialized to the point that they can detect different modalities . A modality is the weakest form of energy that they respond to as light, heat, movement, etc.
Sensory nerves respond to more than one type of energy.
For instance, if you put pressure on your eyeball, receptors will fire and you will see lights. The sensory cells all respond to an electrical voltage. The adequate stimulus is a type of energy that the cell is most sensitive to and, therefore, the cell is classed in the category of its adequate stimulus. The receptor potential, like a sub-synaptic potential, is a graded response. It either does or does not cause action potentials which are essentially all the same.