What are sensory receptors?
Sensory receptors are structures specialized in the acquiring of information, like temperature, mechanical pressure, pH, chemical environment and luminosity, transmitting them to the central nervous system. Sensory receptors may be specialized cells, e.g., the photoreceptors of the retina, or specialized interstitial structures, for example the vibration receptors of the skin. In this last case they transmit information to dendrites of sensory neurons connected to them. There are also sensory receptors that are specialized terminations of neuronal dendrites (e.g., the olfactory receptors).
