sensation + perception Flashcards
What are the five senses?
vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste
What is the common goal of senses?
to translate what we experience in the world as a mental representation (percept)
What is the function of perception?
takes information from multiple sense to form a complete percept of the world around us
What sense(s) use chemical reactions?
taste and smell
What sense(s) use mechanical movement of neuronal parts?
touch and hearing
What sense(s) converge light energy into neuronal signaling?
vision
Sensory systems are designed to detect?
change in the environment
Sensory receptors translate _ and _
intensity and frequency
Define habituation
the phenomenon that our awareness of sensory input goes away after a while
Describe the pathway hearing takes
hair cell in the cochlea (inner ear), inferior colliculus, thalamus, auditory cortex
Auditory information cross to the __ hemisphere and synapses in the _ _ and _ before entering the __ __ cortex on the __ surface of the __ lobe
contralateral
brain stem; thalamus
primary auditory;
superior; temporal
How is the auditory cortex organized?
inotropic
neurons encoding lower frequency sounds positioned towards the rostral end of the auditory cortex
higher frequency sounds are encoded caudally
Define intra-aural timing
difference when we hear a sound in one ear v another, used to determine sound localization
Describe the pathway of smell takes
olfactory receptors, olfactory bulb, olfactory cortex
Odorants enter the nose, activating sensory receptors along the __, receptors synapse in __ __ and enter the __ and __ cortex on the __ side without going to the __
nasal epithelium at the roof of the nasal cavity
olfactory bulb, primary; secondary olfactory
ipsilateral
thalamus
What is the function of the primary olfactory cortex?
detects changes in directionality of scents
What is the function of the secondary olfactory cortex?
helps identify what scents are
Where is the olfactory cortex?
part of the piriform cortex, located at the ventral portion of the frontal lobe near the junction of the temporal lobe
How many types of receptors are the for the five different types of taste?
three
salty, sweet, bitter, sour, umami
Describe the pathway taste takes
taste buds (sensory receptors) to brain stem to thalamus to gustatory cortex
Where is the secondary gustatory cortex, what is its function?
orbital frontal cortex
works to process pleasure and reward aspects of food
Describe the perception of taste
tongue works together with taste buds and specialized receptors for touch (pressure) and chemical signals for spiciness/ carbonation
works in tandem with olfactory system to yield taste
Where is the gustatory cortex?
insula
Where are the highest concentration of touch receptors?
greatest in the area where we have the most touch sensitivity
Describe the pathway touch takes
sensory receptor, spinal cord, medulla (decussation), thalamus, somatosensory cortex
Where do touch receptors enter the spinal cord?
the dorsal horn
Where are the primary and secondary somatosensory cortex?
anterior and dorsal portion of the parietal lobe
How is the somatosensory cortex organized?
somatotropic organization
different areas of the cortex devoted to encoding different info about different body parts (sensory homunculus)
Describe the pathway vision takes
retina, rods/cones, optic chiasm, thalamus, visual cortex
How is vision initially processed?
translation of light
light changes chemical composition of photopigments in rods and cones, causing action potentials to fire
How do cones and rods differ?
rods - sensitive to a variety of light types
cones - specialized for short, medium, and long wavelengths of light so they encode colors or red, blue, and green
Light signals travel through the __ _ and into the __ portion of __ crosses to other hemisphere through _ _. Synapses to __ __ __ of the thalamus which enters the __ __ cortex
optic nerve
medial retina
optic chiasm
lateral geniculate nucleus
primary visual
Where is the primary visual cortex located?
caudal part of the occipital lobe
How is the primary visual cortex organized?
retinotopically
each neuron corresponds to a receptive field part of the retina
light stimulus will activate neurons in the same space
What is the specialization of the cells in V1 (primary visual cortex)
fire when an edge is detected
What is the specialization of the cells in V5
sensitive to motion
What is the specialization of cells in V4
sensitive to color
