W9: Perception 1

Question 1

The major senses that contribute to perception

Answer 1

• Vision
• Audition
• Chemical sense:
• Gustation
• Olfaction
• Body senses:
• Touch
• Proprioception (balance, occurs in the vestibular system, in the inner ear)
• Equilibrioception (awareness of body position)

Question 2

Why study pereption?

Answer 2

Because there are times that our brain perceives something contrary to the information being supplied by the senses.

Question 3

How does perception impact one’s neuropsychology?

Answer 3

• Apperceptive agnosia
  
  • The inability to recognise objects –> can see but can’t draw or copy an object
• Associatie agnosia
  
  • Has intact perception but cannot recognise objects
• Other examples: Alien hand syndrom, rubber hand illusion

Question 4

How does perception impact one’s clinical psychology?

Answer 4

Eating disorder and body dysmorphia

Question 5

What is psychophysics?

Answer 5

The scientific study of the subjective experience of perception.

Regarding the relationship between physical stimuli and the psychology experience

Question 6

How are the smell and taste receptors activated?

Answer 6

Chemicals need to be dissolved for them to be activated

Taste –> chemical dissolve in taste buds –> saliva
Smell –> chemical dissolve in the mucus in the nose

Question 7

What is the tasting process?

Answer 7

• Saliva secreted during eating mixes with food in the mouth
• Chemicals dissolved in saliva and are detected by taste receptor cells in taste buds
• Sensory neurons in taste buds send taste information to the brain
• Information is processed in the insular cortex, the primary gistory cortex

Question 8

Can taste perception be interupt?

Answer 8

Taste perception continues uninterupted throughout life.

Taste receptor cells are constanly renewed, replacing cells every 1-2 months

Question 9

How many primary smells and tastes are known?

Answer 9

7 primary smells
5 primary tastes

Question 10

Hyposmia vs anosmia

Answer 10

Hyposmia: decresed sense of smell
Anosmia: partial or loss of sense of smell

Question 11

What disease can affect the ability to smell?

Answer 11

Some diseases can obstruct the nasal passageway
* E.g. Alzheimer’s disease, some cancers, diabetes, zinc deficiency

Question 12

What is the smelling process?

Answer 12

• Sense of smell is triggered by receptors located in teh olfactory epithelium
• The receptors send signals directly to the olfactory bulbs located in the brain
• Olfactory system bypasses the thalamus and connects directly to the cerebral cortex, limbic system and hypothalamus

Question 13

limbic system –> emotions –> amygdala is located here

What is the psychological significance of the fact that the olfactory system connects directly to the cerebral cortex, limbic system, and hypothalamus?

Answer 13

The direct connection contributes to emotional and memory-evoked responses triggered by certain smells.

The limbic system, particularly the amygdala, is associated with emotional processing and memory formation –> certain odours can evoke powerful emotional and memory-related responses

Question 14

Parosmia, Cacosmia, Phantosmia

Answer 14

Parosmia: inability of the brain to correctly identify certain smells

Cacosmia: a type of parosmia; smells get distorted and perceived as intensely foul odours

Phantosmia: smelling an odour that is not there

Question 15

What is somatosensation? Is it just a single sense?

Answer 15

Somatosensation is sensory expriences that provide informatiom aobut the body’s condition and its interaction with the environment

It’ not jsut a single sense. It’s a collection of sensory experiences including touch, proprioception, pain and thermoception

Question 16

What are th receptors for somatosensation?

Answer 16

Involves receptors in skin, joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments

Question 17

What is nociception?

Answer 17

Nociceptors sense harmful stimuli such as heat, cold, pressure, chemicals or tissues injury –> nociception

Question 18

How is pain perceived?

Answer 18

Pain is a conscious process perceived and interpreted in the brain

Psychological and emotional factors influence pain perception

Question 19

What are the factors that influence pain perception?

Answer 19

Cognitive appraisal:
* Brain evauates significance and threat level of pain signals
* Negative emotional reactions —> amplify pain perception
* Positive emotional reactions –> modulate emotional and psychological impact of pain

Pain chronicity and transition to chronic pain
* Transition from acute pain (short term) to chronic pain (long term) invovles complex interaction between physical and psychological factors
* Chronic pain can lead to changes in the brain’s structure and fuction –> impacting the psychological experience of pain
* Placebo effect: perceiving pain from treatments without active therapeutic value
* Nocebo effect: experiencing negative effects due to negative expectations

Pain modulation:
* Psychological interventions (e.g. CBT) can impact the brain’s pain processing areas and alter perception of pain

Question 20

What makes the vestibular system?

Answer 20

Semicircular canals

Utricle and saccule

Question 21

What is the major role of the semicircular canals?

Answer 21

Maintaining out balance and stability

Provide crucial informaton about the head’s rotational movement through the six degrees of freedom

Question 22

What is the rotational movement of the six degree of freedom?

Answer 22

X-axis:
* Movement: forward and backward
* Rotation: roll

Y-axis:
* Movement: left and right
* Rotation: pitch

Z-axis:
* Movement: up and down
* Rotation: yaw

Question 23

What’s the function and purpose of the utricle and saccule?

Answer 23

Utricle and saccule are inner ear organs containing calcium carbonate crystals (otoliths)

Function: detect linear accelerations, including gravity, aiding in balance and movement perception

Purpose: ensures smooth movement and balance, often occuring uncounsiously

Question 24

What is sound? What are the important properites of sound?

Answer 24

Sound is a type of energy that travels through air in the form of pressure waves (amplitude and frequency)

Important properties:
* Pitch:
* Determines by frequency, the number of cycles the wave completes in a second (Hz)
* Higher freqency –> higher pitch

• Amplitude:
  
  • Maximum displacement of the wave from its equilibraium position
  • Greater amplitude –> louder sound

Question 25

The hearing proces

Answer 25

Sound waves enter the ear canal –> eardrum vibrate at the same frequency, causes 3 tiny bones to vibrate, causes the fluid inside the cochlea to vibrate, causes the tiny hairs that line the inside of the cochlea to vibrate –> when the hairs vibrate, they fire neurons –> send signials to the temporal lobe, where the soun is interpreted

Question 26

Why are we able to hear so many different sounds?

Answer 26

Different frequencies vibrate different hair

Question 27

The cochlea - the basilar membrane, how does sound travels through it?

Answer 27

High frequency (high pitched) sounds induced the maximal vibration at the narrower, siffer end of the basilar membrane –> the basal end

Low frequency (low pithced) cause maximal vibration at the wider, softer end of the basilar membrane –> the apical end