week 7 - perception

Question 1

somatosensory cortex

Answer 1

somatosensory cortex - The region of the parietal lobe responsible for bodily sensations; the somatosensory cortex has a contralateral representation of the human body.
Somatosensation - Ability to sense touch, pain and temperature. Here, the things we touch and feel (e.g. sandpaper, a puppy’s fur or cold Lake Ontario water) transform from physical stimuli to electrical potentials. Provides our brain with information about our own body (interception) and the external world (exteroception)

Question 2

cutaneous sense

Answer 2

cutaneous senses - The senses of the skin: tactile, thermal, pruritic (itchy), painful, and pleasant.

Question 3

kinaesthesia

Answer 3

Kinesthesis - Our sense of our bodily movement

Question 4

proprioception

Answer 4

Proprioception - Our sense of the position of our body

Question 5

noiception

Answer 5

Nociception - Our ability to sense pain and discomfort

Question 6

mechanoreceptors

Answer 6

Mechanoreceptors - Mechanical stimuli (e.g. stroking, stretching or vibration of the skin)

Question 7

thermoreceptors

Answer 7

thermoreceptors - Hot and cold temperatures

Question 8

chemoreceptors

Answer 8

chemoreceptors - Chemicals applied externally or released within the skin (e.g. histamine)

Question 9

noiceptors

Answer 9

Nociceptors - Noxious stimuli. Nociceptors send information about actual or impending tissue damage to the brain. These signals can often lead to pain, but nociception and pain are not the same.

Question 10

organ of corti

Answer 10

Organ of Corti - Runs along the basilar membrane, from the base (by the oval window) to the apex (the “tip” of the spiral). Has three rows of outer hair cells and one row of inner hair cells. The hair cells sense the vibrations by way of their tiny hairs, or stereocilia

Question 11

basilar membrane

Answer 11

basilar membrane - Runs along the length of the spiral, vibrates in response to the pressure differences produced by vibrations of the oval window

Question 12

sensation

Answer 12

Sensation - The physical processing of environmental stimuli by the sense organs.

Question 13

transduction

Answer 13

Transduction - A process in which physical energy converts into neural energy.

Question 14

perception

Answer 14

Perception - The psychological process of interpreting sensory information.

Question 15

absolute threshold

Answer 15

Absolute threshold - The smallest amount of stimulation needed for detection by a sense.

Question 16

signal detection

Answer 16

signal detection - Method for studying the ability to correctly identify sensory stimuli.

Question 17

just noticeable difference

Answer 17

just noticeable difference - The smallest difference needed in order to differentiate two stimuli. (see Differential Threshold)

Question 18

weber’s law

Answer 18

Weber’s law - States that just noticeable difference is proportional to the magnitude of the initial stimulus.
bottom-up processing - Building up to perceptual experience from individual pieces.

Question 19

top down processing

Answer 19

top-down processing - Experience influencing the perception of stimuli.

Question 20

rods

Answer 20

rods

Photoreceptors of the retina sensitive to low levels of light. Located around the fovea.

Question 21

cones

Answer 21

cones Photoreceptors of the retina sensitive to color. Located primarily in the fovea.

Question 22

how we see

Answer 22

How we see:
Light enters the pupil
Light hits the retina - a specialized area of cells containing photoreceptors
Rods and cones
Photons hit disks found in outer segments of photoreceptors
Pigments trigger cascade of chemical reactions, potentially opening Na+ channels
Action potential triggered, cascading through bipolar neurons, retinal ganglion cells, then optic nerve.

Question 23

hearing/audition

Answer 23

Hearing / audition is the ability to process auditory stimuli Auditory stimuli are sound waves – changes in air pressure. Composition of waves determines loudness, pitch and timbre

Question 24

how we hear

Answer 24

How we hear:
Sound wave enters the pinna, which is the visible/outermost part of the ear, and travels down the auditory / ear canal
Sound reaches eardrum (tympanic membrane) a thin, stretched membrane in the middle ear that vibrates in response to sound
Tiny bones in the middle ear (the ossicles: malleus, in
The ossicles have amplified the vibrations, striking the oval window, passing vibrations to the fluid-filled space of the cochlea.
The cochlea has a basilar membrane along it, which in turn has the organ of Corti along it, which has hair cells that respond to vibrations, and propagate electrical signals down the cochlear nerve.

Question 25

cochlea

Answer 25

Cochlea - Spiral bone structure in the inner ear containing auditory hair cells.