Sensory Systems
This sense is responsible for detecting light and color.
What is vision?
This is the minimum amount of stimulus energy needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time.
What is the absolute threshold?
These are the specialized cells that detect sensory information and send signals to the brain.
What are sensory receptors?
This transparent structure in the eye focuses light onto the retina, allowing us to see clearly at different distances.
What is the lens?
This condition occurs when individuals feel sensations, including pain, in a limb that has been amputated, due to the brain's continued processing of sensory input from the missing limb.
What is Phantom Limb Syndrome?
This sense detects vibrations and pressure changes in the environment.
What is hearing?
The ability to detect the smallest difference between two stimuli is called this.
What is the just noticeable difference (JND)? or difference threshold?
After sensory receptors are activated, they send electrical signals through these cells to the brain.
What are neurons?
These specialized cells in the retina are responsible for detecting light and allowing us to see in low-light conditions.
What are rods?
These tiny hair-like structures in the inner ear play a crucial role in hearing by converting sound vibrations into neural signals.
What are cilia (or hair cells)?
The sensory system responsible for detecting chemical molecules in the air or food is called this.
What is smell?
This term refers to the decrease in sensitivity to a constant stimulus over time.
What is sensory adaptation?
This part of the brain is primarily responsible for processing auditory information.
What is the temporal lobe?
The point where the optic nerve exits the eye and contains no photoreceptors is called this.
What is the blind spot?
This theory suggests that the perception of pain is modulated by a "gate" in the spinal cord, which can be opened or closed by competing signals, such as touch or pressure.
What is the Gate Control Theory of pain?
This sensation allows you to detect 6 basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, oleogustus and umami.
The principle that the difference threshold is a constant proportion of the original stimulus is known as this.
What is Weber’s Law?
This structure in the brain is the relay station for sensory information, directing it to the appropriate areas of the brain.
What is the thalamus?
This area of the brain processes visual information, including color, shape, and motion.
What is the occipital lobe?
This structure in the inner ear, consisting of the semicircular canals, helps maintain balance by detecting head movements.
What is the vestibular system?
One of 6 basic tastes that allows you taste fat.
What is oleogustus?
This phenomenon occurs when a stimulus is below the threshold for conscious perception but still affects behavior.
What is subliminal perception?
The process of converting sensory stimuli into neural signals is known as this.
What is transduction?
This theory of color vision suggests that the retina contains three types of cones, each sensitive to a specific range of wavelengths corresponding to red, green, and blue.
What is the Trichromatic Theory?
This structure in the brain processes scent information received from the olfactory receptors and is involved in the perception of smell.
What is the olfactory bulb?