Sensory Systems Flashcards
What are the five fundamenals of sensation
Vision
Audition
Olfaction
Touch
Taste
Others
What is sensation in its most simple form?
Energy transduction
What is the basis of energy transduction?
In each sensory modality, a specific type of stimulus energy is transformed into neural responses that are processed by the brain
What are the five steps of sensing
Stimulus -> collection -> transduction -> spikes -> processing
Why do animals need to sense/measure signals in the world?
Finding food
Detecting predators
Finding suitable mates
What are the types of signals animals can measure?
Electromagnetic
Chemical
Mechanical
What are electromagnetic signals
Light
Heat
Electrical signals
Magnetic signals
What are chemical signals
Taste
Smell
Pheromones
What are mechanical signals
Pressure
Gravity
Sounds
Touch
Vibration
What are humans five senses
Touch
Taste
Vision
Audition
Olfaction
What are the three methods of determining what signals are sensed by animals
Electrophysiology
Natural behavior to relevant stimuli
Animal psychophysics
How does electrophysiology work
Measure sensory neuron responses
Give an example of electrophysiology
Attraction of male moths to female phermonesWhat
does electrophysiology not inform us about
Behavioral utility
What is behavioral utility
How and why animals behave the way they do
Give an example of a study that used natural behavior to relevent stimuli to determine signals
Johnston et al. (1993) tested whether hamsters could identify and discriminate between two other hamster’s scents
(hamsters mark their territories using their secretions)
Why is animal psychophysics necessary?
Natural behavior is very uncontrolled and sometimes cannot help prove hypotheses
What deos animal psychophysics measure
How much information is processed by the senses quantitatively
What is a significant animal psychophysics study
Remy and Emerton (1989)
What did Remy and Emerton study
the range of light waves visible to pigeons
Describe Remy and Emerton’s study and results (not on slide show)
How did eyes evolve?
What are the three types of eyes
Ocelli
Lens and retina
Compound eyes
What are ocelli and how do they work?
What are lens and retina and how do they work?
What are compound eyes and how do they work?
Eye placement
Advantages of color vision
Helps us contrast objects from backgrounds (add more)
Different color receptors
Ultraviolet vision
10-400nm frequency
What vision do humans have
RGB
What vision do bees have
UV + G + B
What vision do birds have
UV + R + G + B