Chapter 12 (M. Wolfe) Flashcards
Active sensing
Sensing that includes self-generated probing of the environment.
Amplitude
The size (increase or decrease) of a head movement (e.g., angular velocity, linear acceleration, tilt).
Angular acceleration
The rate of change of angular velocity.
Angular motion
Rotational motion like the rotation of a spinning top or swinging saloon doors that rotate back and forth.
Balance system
The sensory systems, neural processes, and muscles that contribute to postural control. Specific components include the vestibular organs, kinesthesis, vestibulo-spinal pathways, skeletal bones, and postural control muscles.
Balance
The neural processes of postural control by which weight is evenly distributed, enabling us to remain upright and stable.
Dizziness
A commonly used lay term that nonspecifically indicates any form of perceived spatial disorientation, with or without instability
Hair cell
Any cell that has stereocilia for transducing mechanical movement in the inner ear into neural activity sent to the brain; some also receive inputs from the brain
Kinesthetic
Referring to perception involving sensory mechanoreceptors in muscles, tendons, and joints.
Otolith organ
Either of two mechanical structures (utricle and saccule) in the vestibular system that sense both linear acceleration and gravity.
Receptor potential
A change in voltage across the membrane of a sensory receptor cell (in the vestibular system, a hair cell) in response to stimulation.
Semicircular canal
Any of three toroidal tubes in the vestibular system that sense angular motion
Sensory integration
The process of combining different sensory signals. Typically, combining several signals yields more accurate and/or more precise information than can be obtained from individual sensory signals
Spatial orientation
A sense consisting of three interacting modalities: perception of linear motion, angular motion, and tilt.
Vection
An illusory sense of self-motion caused by moving visual cues when one is not, in fact, actually moving.
Vestibular organs
The set of five sense organs—three semicircular canals and two otolith organs—located in each inner ear that sense head motion and head orientation with respect to gravity
Vestibular system
The set of five sense organs—three semicircular canals and two otolith organs—located in each inner ear that sense head motion and head orientation with respect to gravity and the neural pathways directly associated with these sense organs
What are the three directions of rotation coded by the vestibular system?
Roll: rotation around the x-axis
Pitch: rotation around the y-axis
Yaw: rotation around the z-axis
What do hair cells do in the vestibular system?
Hair cells support the stereocilia that transduce mechanical movement in the vestibular labyrinth into neural activity sent to the brain stem.
What are maculae?
Maculae are specialized detectors of linear acceleration and gravity found in each otolith organ.
What is the vestibular-ocular reflex?
It is a compensatory eye movement that adjusts for changes in head position in order to keep the eye fixated on a target.
What area of the brain is involved in spatial orientation perception?
The multisensory temporo-parieto-insular cortex. It receives input from both the semicircular canals and the otolith organs and if it is damaged by a stroke, patients report illusory tilts and/or illusory translation
