How do you test sense receptors?

It's not possible to test the senses of the dead. We test our senses by providing a stimuli and observe how our subjects react or what their responses are.
For example, we could test cutaneouse sensors/sense of touch by applying hot/cold, rough/smooth, etc. on our skin; sense of taste by tasting sweet,sour, bitter, salty (ex. sugar, satl, vinger, etc. ), our sense of smell (olfactory) by providing things that smell good/bad (oranges, cologne, etc).
We then note how our subjects react to these stimuli, whether they can discriminate the different textures or temperatures (like did they withdraw their hand after feeling the heat), could they tell without looking what food it was they tasted, or smelled.....
:-)

Cutaneous and taste bud sensors are the easiest to test. The tests performed are basically qualitative tests. Where the receptors are found and what they do and density of how they are bundled.

1.With the person's eyes closed , touch the skin with a blunt needle and ask the person  what was sensed... hot , cold, pain, itch, touch. The finger ends are the most sensitive and packed with different neural sensors.

2. With taste buds use the same procedure and lightly touch different areas of the tongue and ask  what is sensed. ... sweet, sour, salty, bitter,etc.   You can also use things with these qualities on a cotton swab and test different areas of the tongue for intensity of the sensation or if it changes depending on where on the tongue is touched.

3. The olfactory is harder to do. You can do tests of dilutions. What is the least amount you can smell and discern a specific smell. You can also test for the absence of  a sent detection at any strength.

4. The fourth test I could think of is how the sensation of a smell or taste is perceived if the nose and tongue cannot work in conjunction . ... sort of like having a stuffy nose and what can be tasted with clarity.


Those are a few of the ways to test receptors.