Midterm 2 Flashcards
Transduction
The conversion from sensory stimulus energy to action potential is known as transduction.
When sensory info is detected by sensory receptors, sensation has occurred.
Light that enters the eye causes changes in cells in back of the eyes, these cells relay messages I’m the form of action potentials to the central nervous system.
Synesthia
When the brain routes sensory info thru multiple unrelated senses. Eg. Info from eyes gets sent to auditory cortex while info from ears gets sent to visual cortex. Eg. Looking at stars causes a humming in the ears.
Selective attention
The brain prioritizing one thing and filtering out the rest.
Rods
More efficient at night. Absorb light on one end and the other end releases neurotransmitters black and white.
Responsible for vision at low light levels.
Cones
High performance at high light levels. Capable of color vision.
Optic nerve
Comprised of millions of nerve fibers that send visual messages to your brain to help you see. Optic nerve is connected directly to the brain.
Optic disk
The optic disc (blind spot) isthe round spot on the retina formed by the passage of the axons of the retinal ganglion cells, which transfer signals from the photoreceptors of the eye to the optic nerve, allowing us to see.
The optic nerve enters the back the eye and there’s a blind spot in your field of vision but the brain photoshops it out
Size constancy
Size Constancy is the tendency to perceive an object as being the same size regardless of whether it is close or far away.
Brightness constancy
Brightness constancy isour visual ability to perceive objects as having the same level of brightness even though the level of lighting changes. For example, something white will appear to be the same shade of white no matter how much light it is being exposed to - noontime sunlight or a soft lamplight at night.
Color constancy
Color constancy refers toour ability to perceive colors as relatively constant over varying illuminations(i.e. light sources). For example, a red apple will still look red on a sunny day or cloudy day – or in a grocery store or a home.
Inattentional blindness
Eg. Gorilla in basketball video. Person focusing on something else will filter out unexpected stimulus in plain sight.
What is the difference between absolute and difference thresholds?
The lowest level of intensity of a specific stimulus that a person may perceive with their senses is known as an absolute threshold. The smallest or smallest difference between stimuli a person can detect is known as a difference threshold.
Cochlea
the spiralcavityof the inner ear containing the organ of Corti, which producesnerveimpulsesin response to soundvibrations.
Air moves down the cochlea and transduction occurs. (Hair?) Cells wiggle and release neurotransmitters.
Ossicles
Bones in the ear. The function of the auditory ossicles isto transfer and amplify air vibrations into the inner ear to be processed as sound. Sound waves travel through the air to the external auditory canal, causing the eardrum to vibrate.
Tympanic membrane
The tympanic membrane has a rather simple function,sound transmission, and amplification. Similar to the membrane on a drum, the tympanic membrane vibrates as it encounters sound “stops the qtip”
What are the 4 types of well established taste receptors? What are 2 more controversial ones?
Sweet, sour, bitter, salty
Umami / fat content
What role does the limbic system play in smell processing?
When you smell a scent, it travels from the olfactory bulb to the limbic system in our brains where memories and emotions are sorted, processed.
All senses go thru the thalamus, except smell. Smell goes to the limbic system first.
Meissner’s corpuscles
Pressure and low frequency vibrations
Pacinian corpuscles
Higher frequency vibrations. Transient pressure like sitting down. Responds to changes in pressure
Merkel’s disks
Light pressure…tickling
Ruffini corpuscles
Stretching
Free nerve endings
Temperature and pain reception
What is gate control theory of pain
The gate opens when you feel pain and allows signal to reach brain. Any other touch(tickle/stretching) closes the gate. Blocks signal. So if you hit your elbow then rub it, youre closing the gate
What is phantom pain
Even tho you could be missing a limb, that part of the brain still exists, so the brain is trying to reorganize and sometimes still firing off the part that corresponds to painful stimuli.
Mirror therapy for missing limbs, tricks the brain into thinking the limb is still there
Loudness physical property
Peak and trough
Pitch physical property
Is the frequency how or slow and long the wavelengths are
Timbre physical property
Saturation. Frequency bandwidth. Differentiates voices even if 3 ppl are singing at same loudness and pitch
Sensory adaption
Senses fades or disappears. We adapt to consistent stimuli or predictable stimuli (like a ceiling fan) the feeling of clothes,material on seat when sitting. You block these senses and adapt to them. Consistent unchanging stimuli fades/disappears
Our nervous system is built to filter out consistent stuff and hone in on changing dynamic stuff. (Evolutionary level)
Brightness
Amplitude (up and down)
Hue
Wavelengths.
Red is longest wave and low frequency stimulus.
Then in order of rainbow..orange, yellow, green, blue. Blue being high frequency stimulus with shortest and sharpest Wavelength.
Saturation
How pure, single frequency (like a lazer), mixing more frequencies into that light and you get lower saturation. Higher bandwidth means more colors =white light.
Narrow bandwidth =1 frequency.
All colors combined =white
Retina
The retinacaptures the light that enters your eye and helps translate it into the images you see. Light passes through the lens at the front of your eye and hits the retina. Photoreceptors — cells inside your retina that react to light — change light energy into an electrical signal.
Trichromatic theory of vision
Total color blindness is rare, just light and dark. No cones work.
Everything is else is color deficiency.
Opponent process theory of vision and negative afterimages
Neurons see certain colors (blue) and get excited. When we see yellow the neuron is subdued (inhibited) this is opponent process cells.
Some colors shouldn’t be seen simultaneously, like blue and yellow, the same neuron can’t fire and not fire simultaneously.
Negative after images are like pinching off a hose then releasing it.if you inhibit a neuron it’s the same thing when you stop suppressing it there will be a rebound effect. If you stare at yellow and it’s inhibited, then turn yellow light off the rebound will fire and you’ll see blue hallucination
Color does not exist
It’s a symbolic representation of electro magnetic frequency energies of light in the world around us.
