Sensation and Perception Quiz

The process of transforming sensory stimuli into neural signals that the brain can understand.

The minimum intensity of a stimulus that must occur before a person can detect it 50% of the time.

The smallest detectable difference between two stimuli. It's the amount of change needed to notice a difference 50% of the time.

The study of the relationship between the physical characteristics of stimuli and the subjective experiences they create.

The sense of taste. It's a combination of five basic qualities: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami (savory).

Small, raised bumps on the tongue that contain taste buds.

A cluster of receptor cells on the tongue responsible for detecting taste.

Tiny hair-like protrusions from taste receptor cells that interact with dissolved taste compounds.

A thin layer of tissue in the nasal cavity containing smell receptors, which transmit information to the olfactory bulb.

A brain region responsible for processing smell information.

The sense of smell, involving the detection of odor molecules.

The conscious perception of flavor, combining taste, smell, and other sensory information.

Specialized neurons that respond to mechanical pressure or distortion, often found in the skin and inner ear.

A representation of the body in the brain, mapping different body parts to specific areas of the somatosensory cortex.

A theory explaining the experience of pain, suggesting that a 'neural gate' in the spinal cord controls the transmission of pain signals to the brain.

A system in the inner ear providing information about body position, movement, and balance.

The sensation of pain from a missing limb, often experienced by amputees.

The body senses, including touch, temperature, pain, and body position.

Pain signals from the body travel through the spinal cord, reaching the thalamus, which then sends information to the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the insula for emotional processing, and to the somatosensory cortex for location and intensity perception.

Sound is created by vibrations that travel through air, liquids, or solids. The height of these sound waves determines loudness (intensity), measured in decibels (dB). The frequency of the wave determines pitch, measured in Hertz (Hz).

The visible part of the ear, also known as the pinna, collects and focuses sound. This sound is channeled through the auditory canal to the eardrum, which separates the outer ear from the middle ear.

The middle ear contains tiny bones that transmit sound energy from the air to the fluid of the inner ear. The oval window marks the boundary between the middle ear and the inner ear.

The inner ear houses the cochlea, containing hair cells that convert vibrations into neural signals. These hair cells are located on the basilar membrane within the Organ of Corti.

The basilar membrane vibrates in response to sound, causing hair cells in the Organ of Corti to bend. This bending triggers the release of neurotransmitters onto the auditory nerve, transmitting the sound information to the brain.

The brain processes pitch based on the specific area of the basilar membrane that vibrates most. This is known as the 'place theory'. Additionally, the frequency of neural firing can also encode pitch, known as the 'temporal theory'.

The ability to focus on objects at different distances is called accommodation. Muscles adjust the shape of the lens, flattening it for distant objects and thickening it for close objects.

The cornea is the transparent outer layer of the eye that begins to bend light rays to form an image at the back of the eye.

The iris is the colored part of the eye that controls the size of the pupil, regulating how much light enters the eye.

The lens is the main optical instrument of the eye that focuses light onto the retina. Muscles attached to the lens change its shape to allow for focusing on objects at different distances.

Photoreceptors, specifically rods and cones, convert light energy into a chemical signal that is then converted into an electrical signal.

The primary visual cortex (V1) is divided into two pathways: the dorsal stream (where) and the ventral stream (what). The dorsal stream processes spatial information, while the ventral stream processes object recognition.

Rods and cones send information to a series of neurons within the retina, ultimately forming the optic nerve. This nerve carries visual information to the brain.

The Gestalt principles of perceptual organization explain how we perceive and organize visual information. These include figure-ground relationship, illusory contours, proximity, similarity, continuation, and closure.

Our brains use various depth perception cues, including retinal disparity, monocular depth cues, and motion cues. Retinal disparity uses the difference between the images seen by each eye to determine distance. Monocular depth cues are used by one eye to perceive depth, such as occlusion or relative size. Motion cues use the change in perspective as an object moves to estimate its distance.