Lecture 6: Sensory Systems

Question 1

Sensation was awareness of the states of the sensory nerves not the outer world itself

Answer 1

Muller’s Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies

Question 2

Explain: When a given nerve type was excited, the same type of experience is produced no matter what the stimulus

Answer 2

Mueller’s doctrine of specific nerve energies; a mechanical or electrical impulse of the eye both produce visual sensations

Question 3

Explain: Same physical stimulus applied to different sense organs give rise to different sensations

Answer 3

Mueller’s doctrine of specific nerve energies; Blow to the eye and blow to the ear produce visual and auditory sensations

Question 4

Sensory system have a _____ range of responsiveness among species and lifespans; explain this

Answer 4

Restricted; The difference in sound frequency (Hz) that can be heard by humans and cats

Question 5

The transformation of energy into an action potential

Answer 5

Sensory Transduction

Question 6

Responsible for detecting specific types of energy

Answer 6

Receptor cells

Question 7

Responsible for converting the sensory energy into electrical energy in the form of action potentials

Answer 7

Transducers

Question 8

The _____ of the receptor determines the type of energy to which it responds

Answer 8

Structure

Question 9

The impact of energy on the receptor that causes action potentials to occur in the sensory neuron which codes the occurrence of the sensory stimulus

Answer 9

Generator Potential

Question 10

Lies in the skin as is responsible for our sense of touch, resembles a tiny onion consisting of a nerve fiber surrounded by layers of fibroblast cells

Answer 10

Pacinian Corpuscle

Question 11

What three questions does the brain need to answer for any sensory input?

Answer 11

1. What is it?
2. Where is it?
3. How big is it?

Question 12

We now know that all senses use the same type of energy; __________

Answer 12

Action Potentials

Question 13

The brain recognizes the different forms of sensory perception as separate and distinct because ___________

Answer 13

Each perception form sends its AP along separate nerve tracts

Question 14

What do we use to determine the location of a stimulus when precise neurons are firing in the brain?

Answer 14

Labeled Lines

Question 15

Refers to the region of space in a neuron where stimulus presentation causes the neuron to alter its firing rate

Answer 15

Receptive Field

Question 16

To determine the receptive field of a neuron investigators record ________ to a variety of _________ to see what makes the activity of the cell change from its resting rate

Answer 16

electrical responses; stimuli

Question 17

Allow the relative timing between the arrival of the stimulus or its relative intensity, EX: two nostrils or two ears

Answer 17

Bilateral receptor system

Question 18

The firing rate of the neuron is proportional to the intensity of the _______

Answer 18

Stimulus

Question 19

Receptors that show a low or non-existent decline in firing rate as the stimulation is maintained (little adaptation)

Answer 19

Tonic

Question 20

Receptors that show a rapid decrease in firing rate when stimulation is adapted ( a lot of adaptation)

Answer 20

Phasic

Question 21

A brief delay in our sensory experience can make us very insensitive to change

Answer 21

Change Blindness

Question 22

A perceptual phenomenon that demonstrates an interaction between hearing and vision in speech perception, when the auditory component of one sound is paired with the visual component of another sound, leading to the perception of a third sound

Answer 22

The McGurk Effect

Question 23

Acts as a “filter” ensuring that we pay attention only to those things that are changing and have high survival value and not things that are constant and have low survival value

Answer 23

Adaptation