9.1

Question 1

What do sensory receptors do?

Answer 1

Convert (transduce) sensory energy into neural activity

Question 2

What is a receptive field?

Answer 2

The specific part of the world to which a sensory receptor organ responds (e.g. what one eye can see vs. the other)
- each cell inside the sensory organ also has a unique receptive field

Question 3

What areas of the body have higher receptor density?

Answer 3

Areas that need to be more sensitive/acute (e.g. center of vision, fingers/hands)

Question 3

What are neural relays?

Answer 3

Neuronal pathways that aid processing and integration of sensory information. (how the info travels from the sensory organ to the designated part(s) of the brain)

Question 4

What is the reason for information to travel to different parts of the brain in a neural relay?

Answer 4

Different parts of the brain process different components of the information to form a full sensory experience.
Allows sensory systems to interact.

Question 5

What is sensation?

Answer 5

Registration of physical stimuli from the environment by the sensory organs. (e.g. light hitting the eyes)

Question 5

What is perception?

Answer 5

Subjective interpretation of sensations by the brain (e.g. understanding and interpreting what we see)
influenced by context

Question 5

What is synesthesia?

Answer 5

The mixing of the senses in the brain (e.g. seeing sound as colors, tasting words)

Question 6

What is a topographic map?

Answer 6

A neural-spatial representation of the body or of the areas of the sensory world perceived by a sensory organ.
How it’s spatially organized in the brain.

Question 7

______ are energy filters that transduce incoming physical energy into neural activity

Answer 7

sensory receptors

Question 8

_______ fields locate sensory events. Receptor ______ determines sensitivity to sensory stimulation

Answer 8

Receptive; density

Question 9

We distinguish one sensory modality from another by its target in the ______

Answer 9

brain

Question 10

Sensation registers physical stimuli from the environment by the sensory organs. Perception is the _________ experience of sensation.

Answer 10

subjective

Question 11

How is the anatomical organization similar for each sense?

Answer 11

Each modality has many receptors and sends information to the cortex to form topographical maps.