Human sensation part 1

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  • Human sensation
    • Senses are needed for survival (e.g. locating food/knowing territories)
    • Sensation - Detection of simple properties of objects reaching our sensory system (e.g. colour/shape)
    • Perception - To make sense of these properties, to recognise objects, their location, their movement and their backgrounds
    • E.g. hearing is a voice sensation, but recognising the voice is perception
    • Sound - Change in pressure, producing vibration
    • Vibrations reach the eardrum and are transmitted to a set of 3 little bones (Ossicles)
    • Inner ear
      • Ossicles transmit the vibration to a fluid-filled structure inside the inner ear called Cochlea
      • Vibrations then transmit to the Oval window
      • Basilar membrane vibrates in response to pressure at oval window created by bones of the middle ear
      • Vibration causes displacement of cochlea fluid and movement of 'hair cells' on surface of basilar membrane (hair cells = auditory response)
      • Transduction - Process by which 'physical' energy or stimulation is converted into neutral information
      • Auditory receptor organ is called 'Organ of Corti'/spiral organ
    • Auditory
      • High frequencies cause ONLY the end of the basilar membrane near the middle ear to vibrate
      • Low frequencies cause vibrations along a greater distance of the basilar membrane
      • Axons in auditory nerves fire at different times (brain can detect difference in firing rate of a fraction of a millisecond)
      • Volume is coded by the amplitude of vibration of the basilar membrane
    • Sensory coding
      • Reception - Receptor neurons absorb physical energy
      • Transduction  -Physical energy is converted into electrochemical energy represented by the firing pattern of different neurons
      • Coding - Receptors are specialised to absorb and transduce 1 kind of energy
      • The physical and chemical properties of food molecules determine the taste sensation
      • Taste signals travel along a neural pathway from the tongue to the solitary nucleus, primary gustatory cortex and finally, the secondary gustatory cortex
    • Gustation
      • Chemicals in saliva stimulate receptor cells on surface of tongue
      • Receptor cells send signals to brain via cranial nerves, vagus and facial nerves
      • Information goes to Medulla, then Thalamus, then cortex
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