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Question 1

What are the three parts of all sensory systems?

Answer 1

1. Sensory receptors
   -without receptors it cannot be received
2. Neural relays
   -needs to be relayed to the brain
3. Central representations in the neocortex

Question 2

Explain what it means that receptors only respond to a range of stimuli.

Answer 2

Sensory receptors respond to narrow band of stimulus (energy), some respond only to certain shape molecule
b. when light reaches a certain level, we will not be able to detect it anymore. we can’t hear certain frequencies because it is beyong our range.

Question 3

What is transduction when you are talking about receptors? What is the “common language”
that stimuli get transduced to?

Answer 3

Receptors transduce or translate energy. The “common language” that stimuli get transduced to is AP’s (action potentials)

Question 4

Explain how receptors locate events, detect change and constancy and help to distinguish
internal from external stimuli.

Answer 4

i. receptors locate events through the receptive field
ii. when something changes in the environment your receptors will pick up on it,
smell, visual, feeling
iii. different receptors for internal and external stimuli
iv. when our receptors alert us to something, usually won’t persist because we
adapt, if you are feeling pain then the receptors will persist

Question 5

How does receptor density determine the sensitivity?

Answer 5

The more receptors you have, the more sensitive.

Question 6

Explain how stimulation of other types of receptors around a pain receptor can make pain
appear less, and how this is an example of an interaction among different senses at the relay
level.

Answer 6

a. when feeling pain, our receptors are constantly signaling
b. stimuli around this area can distract the conscious mind from the pain and focus on the
other stimuli
c. having neurons firing in some other part of the brain causes distraction, keeps the pain
signals from reaching the brain

Question 7

What does it mean that sensory systems have multiple representations in the brain?

Answer 7

a. Sensory information is coded, each sensory system is composed of subsystems – subsystems have multiple representations
i. info from retina will tell you what you see as well as where to look, etc.