Perception Flashcards
(20 cards)
What is Environmental Information?
Information available in the environment comes in three broad types: Mechanical, Chemical, and Electromagnetic.
What are the types of Mechanical Senses?
Mechanical senses include touch and hearing.
How is touch detected?
Touch is detected by mechanoreceptors in the skin that transduce physical pressure or motion into nerve impulses.
What are the key receptor types for Touch?
Key receptor types include: Meissner’s corpuscles (light, brief pressure), Merkel’s disks (light, sustained pressure), Pacinian corpuscles (deep, sustained pressure/vibration), Free nerve endings & Krause’s bulbs (temperature and pain signals & low-temperature sensation), and Hair follicle receptors (hair movement).
What is the definition of Hearing?
Hearing is based on the transduction of air pressure waves (sound) by the auditory system.
How does the cochlea function in Hearing?
The cochlea converts subtle sound vibrations into nerve impulses through the movement of tiny hairs along the basilar membrane.
What is the definition of Smell and Taste?
Smell (Olfaction) involves odour molecules binding to receptor cells, while Taste (Gustation) involves molecules in saliva interacting with taste receptor cells.
How do Smell and Taste signals reach the brain?
Smell signals reach the olfactory cortex, and Taste signals relay information to the gustatory cortex via brainstem nuclei and the thalamus.
What is the definition of Vision?
Vision relies on photoreceptors in the retina converting electromagnetic radiation (light) into neural signals.
What are the optical components of the human eye?
The cornea, pupil, and lens focus an upside-down image onto the retina.
What is the structure of the Retina?
The retina is a layered, thin, translucent structure at the back of the eyeball, densely packed with photoreceptors.
What is the function of the Optic Nerve?
The optic nerve carries neural signals from the retina to the brain for further processing.
What are some special sensory systems in other animals?
Echolocation in bats, magnetoreception in pigeons, and distributed taste in catfish.
What is the anatomical organisation of the Retina?
The retina consists of photoreceptors, bipolar cells, and retinal ganglion cells, with a dense area called the fovea.
What is the impact of retinal organisation on perception?
The arrangement of the retina creates an efficient, though incomplete, picture of the world.
What are the types of Photoreceptors?
Rods provide black-and-white vision, while cones allow us to see color.
What is a Receptive Field?
A receptive field is the region on the sensory surface where the presence of a stimulus modifies the firing of a neuron.
What is the hierarchy of visual processing?
Initial stage involves photoreceptors, followed by early neural processing and cortical processing.
What are the Ventral and Dorsal Processing Streams?
The Ventral Stream processes detail for recognition, while the Dorsal Stream handles spatial location and motion.
What is Transduction?
Transduction is the process by which sensory receptors convert different forms of environmental energy into electrical signals.
