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Cognitive Psychology 1. Semester > Sensation > Flashcards

Sensation Flashcards

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1
Q

Sensation is not part of the cognition definition. It is part of the physical world.
Sensation is not perception either.
What is the difference between perception and sensation?

A

Sensation : detection of stimulus

Perception : interpretation of stimulus detection

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2
Q

What are the traditional (Aristotelian) 5 senses?

A
  • Vision (sight)
  • Audition (hearing)
  • Somatosensation (touch)
  • Gustation (taste)
  • Olfaction (smell)
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3
Q

What are the other human senses (besides the traditional Aristotelian 5) ?

A
  • Temperature, pain, balance (equilibrium)
  • Kinesthetic (proprioception)
  • Interoceptin (internal body information)
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4
Q

What do receptors do?

A

Receptors transduce stimulus energy to neural energy.

Receptors for vision, touch, smell, hearing and taste vary in their size and shape.

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5
Q

What is light?

A

Light is electromagnetic radiation:

  • No different from microwaves or X-rays
  • Acts both as particles carrying Energy ( E = hf ) and waves
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6
Q

What is the origin of light?

A 
Due to change of electrically charged particles:
- Black body radiation
—> Thermal motion
- Spectral line emission
—> Change in orbital levels
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7
Q

What is Blackbody radiation?

A

• Temperature of an object is due to the movement of atoms in the object
- thermal motion
• Movement of electrons create electromagnetic radiation
- Thermal radiation / continuum radiation

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8
Q

What is Spectral line emission?

A

• Electron orbits in the electron cloud are restricted to very specific radii and energies (different for different atoms)
• The higher the orbit, the higher the energy
• Higher orbits are reached via
- Collisions
- Absorption of photons with exactly the right energy

There are different allowed ‚orbits‘ or energy levels in a hydrogen atom.
Spectral lines is a fingerprint of the type of element.

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9
Q

How can we sense light?

A

Retinal cells:

  • Rod cells
  • Cone cells
  • Bipolar cells
  • Horizontal cells
  • Amacrine cells
  • Ganglion cells
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10
Q

What is the isomerisation of retinal?

A

• When light reaches retinal:

  • 11-cis-retinal absorbs a photon
  • Electron takes the energy and moves to a higher orbital
  • Breaks the bond between 11 and 12, allowing the formation of all-trans-retinal (50% of the time in 1 picosecond)
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11
Q

In the absence of light, the rod is depolarised and sends a continous stream of glutamate to the bipolar cell. This hyperpolarises the bipolar cell and no neurotransmission takes place. When light activates rhodopsin, the sodium channels close and the rod hyperpolarises. This leads to the depolarisation of the bioolar cell and graded potentials propagate.

Highlight difference between dark and light responses?

A

Dark responses:

  • Rhodopsin inactive
  • Na* channels open
  • Rod depolarized
  • Glutamate released
  • Bipolar cell hyperpolarized

Light responses:

  • Rhodopsin active
  • Na* channels closed
  • Rod hyperpolarized
  • No glutamate released
  • Bipolar cell depolarised
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12
Q

What are the 3 cone cells subtypes?

A
  • S-cone
  • M-cone
  • L-cone

They differ in their peak sensitivity.

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13
Q

What is sound ?

A

Sound is the fluctuation of air molecules.
When a sound is produced , the air molecules in the space show regions of high and low pressure, referred to as compression and rarefaction.

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14
Q

Why does the middle ear work?

A

Middle ear works because:

  • surface area of the tympanic membrane is 15 times larger than the oval membrane
  • length of the malleus is 1.3 times larger than the incus
  • tympanic membrane bucks
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15
Q

What is somatosensation (touch) ?

A

• What is touch?
- Pressure and vibrations on the skin

• Mechanoreceptors

  • Merkel receptor
  • Meissner corpuscle
  • Ruffini cylinder
  • Pacinian corpuscle
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16
Q

What are the functions of the different Mechanoreceptors (somatosensation) ?

A
  • Merkel receptors: sense steady pressure and texture
  • Meissner corpuscle: responds to flutter and stroking movements
  • Ruffini corpuscle: responds to skin stretch
  • Pacinian corpuscle: senses vibration

The sensory nerves carry signals to the spinalcord.

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17
Q

What is gustation (taste) ?

A

• The five basic tastes:

  • bitter
  • sweet
  • salt
  • sour
  • umami

• Chemoreceptors are all over tongue, soft palate, cheek, upper part of esophagus, and epiglottis

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18
Q

How do we taste bitter, sweet and umami?

A

Bitter, sweet and umami activate G-protein coupled receptors on the cell membrane that in turn lead to the release of internal calcium (in the case of bitter) or to depolarisation causing calcium to enter the cell. The calcium leads to excretion of neurotransmitter, causing an action potential in the primary sensory neuron.

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19
Q

What is olfaction (smell) ?

A

What is odour?

  • Combination of volatile chemical compounds
  • Water-soluble

Different odorant receptors can sense different odor characters (smells) such as :

  • rancid, sour, goaty
  • sweet, herbal, woody
  • rancid, sour sweety
  • violet, sweet, woody
  • rancid, sour, repulsive
  • sweet, orange, rose
  • waxy, cheese, nut-like
  • fresh, rose, oily floral
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20
Q

What are our human sensory limits?

A
  • vision: limited by photopsin-sensitivity
  • audition: limited by basilar membrane
  • somatosensation: limited by skin structure
  • gustation: taste bud type
  • olfaction: receptor type
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21
Q

Why was Fechner important for psychophysics?

A

Fechner linked physical stimuli with psychological sensation
—> perception !

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22
Q

What is an absolute threshold (detection) ?

A

Point of intensity at which the participant can just detect the presence of a stimulus.

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23
Q

What is the difference threshold (discrimination) ?

A

Point of intensity at which the ppt can just detect the presence of a difference between two stimuli: just noticeable difference.

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24
Q

What is the (psychophysical) method of limits?

A

Method of limits:

  • present stimuli in ascending or descending order of intensity
  • stop when detection changes
    = crossover value
  • repeat several times
  • absolute threshold
    = average crossover value

Method of limits is quick, but imprecise.

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25
Q

What is the (psychophysical) method of constant stimuli?

A

Method of constant stimuli:

  • repeatedly present a small range of stimulus intensities
  • record percentages correct responses
  • fit a psychometric function
  • 50% detection = absolute threshold

Method of constant stimuli is precise, but slow.

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26
Q

What is the (psychophysical) method of adjustment?

A

Method of adjustment:

  • change stimulus intensity continuously
  • stop when observer can barely detect stimulus = absolute threshold
  • repeat several times and average to get final threshold

Method of adjustment is quick, but precision depends on number of repetitions

27
Q

What is the end process of a sensory process?

A

The end product of a sensory process is a physical pattern, which is then transformed into a mental image of the external world. This image is what the cognitive system will operate on.

28
Q

The brain processes the information from sensory networks in dedicated brain regions. What are they called?

A

The dedicated brain regions for processing information from sensory networks are called primary sensory cortices.
The rest of the brain use the output of the primary sensory cortices as their input.

29
Q

It is common in textbooks to localise the act of sensation in these brain regions. However, to follow the philosophy correctly, SENSATION OCCURS ON THE LEVEL OF SENSORY RECEPTORS.
To understand sensation we must understand how these receptors act.
Explain.

A

The receptors are highly specialised cells that convert some energy into neural transmission.
In order to understand sensation, we need to understand how these cells convert different types of information into a single currency: action potentials.
The conversion of stimulus energy to neural energy is called transduction.

30
Q

What is transduction?

A

The conversion of stimulus energy to neural energy (action potentials).

31
Q

Electromagnetic radiation acts as both particles called photons that carry energy, and as waves.
On what does the energy in photons or radiation depend on?

A

The energy in photons or radiation depends on the frequency of light; the higher the frequency the greater the amount of energy.

32
Q

What is the tympanic membrane?

A

The membrane at the base of the ear canal where sound reaches the ear.

33
Q

After sound reaches the tympanic membrane, the vibrations of this membrane leads to vibrations of the bones in the middle ear. What are they called?

A
  • the malleus
  • the incus
  • the stapes
34
Q

The stapes (bones in middle ear) are connected with the oval window, which is the opening of the tympanic duct of the cochlea. Why is the cochlea filled with fluid?

A

The fluid is important in generating the sensation of sound, but it poses a serious problem.
Air has a lower resistance pressure than liquid. This means there would be a considerable loss of energy when the ear canal was directly connected to the oval window.
(The solution to this problem is the configuration of the middle ear bones: the ossicles.)

35
Q

What is the oval window?

A

The opening of the tympanic duct of the cochlea.

36
Q

What are the ossicles?

A

The ossicles work together as a lever system that leads to an increase in pressure on the oval membrane. It helps to counter the mismatch in pressure resistance in air (in outer ear) and fluid (in inner ear).

37
Q

How do the ossicles help to counter the mismatch in pressure resistance in air (in outer ear) and fluid (in inner ear)?

A

The mismatch correction is done in three ways:

1) The surface area of tje tympanic membrane is 15 times larger than the oval membrane, which enhances the pressure.
2) The length of the malleus is 1.3 times larger than the incus, leading to a greater force to given by the incus.
3) The tympanic membrane bucks, which causes a larger force on the malleus than without bucking.

38
Q

The sound that leads to vibration in the cochlea is changed into a movement in the liquid that goes from the oval window to the top of the basilar membrane until its end and then goes underneath the membrane and return to the round window, which absorbs the pressure. How?

A

The basilar membrane is soft in that it folds when a particular movement of the liquid corresponds to a particular frequency. These frequency-specific locations are due to STIFFNESS AND WIDTH of the membrane.

39
Q

To which frequencies is the basilar membrane sensitive?

A

The basilar membrane is sensitive to high frequencies.

40
Q

What is sensitive to low frequencies

(Basilar membrane is sensitive to high frequencies) ?

A

The membrane at the apex is sensitive to low sound frequencies. The vibrations on the membrane lead to mechanical changes in the organ of corti.

41
Q

What is the organ of corti?

A

In the organ of corti, the movement of the basilar membrane causes the hair cells to get rubbed against the tectorial membrane. This opens up ion channels and lead to a depolarisation of the hair cell, which in turn causes an increase in neurotransmitter release and a consequent action potential in the sensory neuron.

42
Q

What are the mechanoreceptors that are specifically responsive to distortions of a particular frequency (somatosensation) ?

A
  • Merkel receptors
  • Meissner corpuscles (sensitive to low vibration frequencies —> respond to flutter and stroking movements)
  • Ruffini cylinders
  • Pacinian corpuscles (sensitive to high vibration frequencies —> sense vibrations)
43
Q

The mechanoreceptors are highly specialised neurons that transform a mechanical displacement into a stream of action potentials.
The mechanoreceptors have different profiles of action potentials.
What are those?

A

The Meissner and Pacinian corpuscles give burst of action potentials when there is a change.
Merkel cells and Ruffini corpuscles give action potentials which are initially high in frequency, but then decrease.
Merkel receptors are used to sense texture, which involves a change in surface.

44
Q

How do we taste (gustation) ?

A

Chewed food gets dissolved in the saliva and this solution triggers a chemical reaction in the chemoreceptors in the taste buds that cover the mouth and upper region of the throat. The taste bud consists of taste hairs that reside in taste pores. The taste cell detects the particular chemical and depolarises the sensory nerve fibre.
In more detail: bitter,sweet, and umami taste activate G-protein coupled receptors on the cell membrane that in turn lead to release of internal calcium (in the case of bitter) or to depolarisation causing calcium to enter the cell. The calcium leads to excretion of neurotransmitter, causing an action potential in the primary sensory neuron.

45
Q

Odour is a combination of volatile chemical compounds. We can not sense any combination. Instead, only thise that are water-soluble can be detected. How do the volatile chemicals enter the nose?

A

The volatile chemicals enter the nose and make contact with the nasal epithelium, which contains the olfactory receptor cells. Each cell is sensitive to only a single odourant.

46
Q

What is the olfactory bulb?

A

The place where action potentials from the primary olfactory neurons reach, and which contains secondary sensory neurons, the mitral cells.

47
Q

Action potentials from the primary olfactory neurons reach the olfactory bulb, which contains secondary sensory neurons, the mitral cells. The synaptic connections between the primary olfactory neurons and the mitral cells are what?

A

The synaptic connections between the primary olfactory neurons and the mitral cells are clustered in glomeruli. Each glomerulus receives input from the same type of olfactory neuron. Thus, each glomerulus processes only a single odour.

48
Q

If the odourant are detected in separate channels, how do we sense a particular odour?

A

Odourants activate a range of receptors. The profile of receptors that are activated is unique to the particular odourant and forms a fingerprint by which to identify the odour.

49
Q

What is retronasal olfaction?

A

When tasting food, we use our taste buds to identify the 5 basic tastes together with the olfactory neurons. By chewing food the odour reaches the olfactory receptors when you exhale. This is called retronasal olfaction.

50
Q

What is involved in what we refer to as ‚flavour‘ ?

A

When we talk about flavour, we are actually referring to a multimodal experience that includes taste, smell, touch (texture of food), hearing (when biting/chewing the food), and vision (seeing the colour and shape of the food).
There exists a whole new branch of psychology focusing only on flavour.

51
Q

In vision, we can see the visible light spectrum, because our rods and cones have proteins that absorb electromagnetic energy over a very small range.
What can we not sense?

A

We can not sense infrared light with our eyes, because we do not have cones with photopsins that are sensitive to infrared light.

52
Q

What are our limitations in regards to audition?

A

In audition, our limits in frequency are due to the stiffness and width of the basilar membrane.

53
Q

The touch receptors are embedded in our skin and respond to vibrations in the skin. What happens if the skin is too rigid?

A

If the skin is too rigid, the receptors will not pick up any vibrations. For example, if you have a scar tissue, you will know that there is no somatosensation from that part of the skin.

54
Q

What are our limitations in regards to gustation?

A

With gustation, the only limitation is the type of taste bud. Each taste bud has receptors that are specific for that particular taste.

55
Q

What are the limitations in regards to olfaction?

A

Olfaction is also a sense that is limited by the number of receptor types. The more olfactory neurons there are, the better the olfactory performance.
For example, while humans have about 6 million olfactory receptor, dogs have about 300 million. Their epithelium is 30 times larger and depending on breed it has 220 million to 2 billion primary olfactory neurons ( humans have between 12 and 40 million).

56
Q

What is the absolute threshold (also called detection threshold) ?

A

The absolute threshold is the point of intensity at which pps can JUST detect the presence of a stimulus.

57
Q

What is the difference threshold (also called the discrimination threshold) ?

A

The point of intensity the presence of a difference between two stimuli: just noticeable difference.

58
Q

Why does psychophysics not uniquely deal with sensation?

A

Because detection requires perception.

59
Q

What is the Snellen test (produced by psychophysics) ?

A

A test used by an eye doctor that measures a person’s visual acuity.

We also use knowledge on colour perception to create tests to measure colour-blindness.

60
Q

In audition, what is the perceptual threshold?

A

In audition, we have ascertained the perceptual threshold as a function of frequency and can identify if a person will need hearing aids for certain frequencies.
Interestingly, the limits of audition have lead to language frequencies that are squarely inside the audibility threshold while being at the same volume level.
In addition, music has developed to go all the way to the edges of our ability to hear the music.

61
Q

In the domain of touch, the two-point discrimination method was developed. What is it?

A

In this method, you will receive two points of touch or one on any part of the body and have to indicate whether you felt one or two touches.
The distance of the touches is systematically varied to find out when you can not discriminate between one and two touches.
A detailed somasensory map was created, showing our sensitivity across the body.

62
Q

In gustation, we have different psychometric profiles for the different tastes. Name an example.

A

For example, we can detect quinine, which is in tonic, at much lower concentrations than salt.

63
Q

The sense of smell has been investigated in a wide range of domains, such as dementia, Parkinson‘s, but also pollution.
What is the correlation between pollution and out sense of smell?

A

The olfactory threshold and olfactory discrimination ability are poorer in polluted areas than in the countryside.

Cognitive Psychology 1. Semester (5 decks)

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