2026 Sensory and Visual System Anatomy Practice Test – Comprehensive Exam Prep

The key idea is that receptors are classified by the type of stimulus they detect. Hair cells in the inner ear respond to mechanical energy from sound waves and head movements. Their stereocilia bend when the membrane moves, which opens mechanically gated ion channels and starts a neural signal. That makes them mechanoreceptors.

Nociceptors detect painful or damaging stimuli, chemoreceptors respond to chemical signals, and photoreceptors detect light. So a hair cell is best described as a mechanoreceptor.