W4L2 Multisensory Conclusion

Bimodal neuron

A neuron that responds to stimuli associated with more than one sense.

Binding

The process by which features within one modality (such as colour, form, motion, and location in vision) are combined to create the percept of a coherent object. Binding can also occur across senses, as when touch and vision are associated with the same object.

Binding problem

The problem of how neuronal activity in many separated areas in the brain is combined to create a perception of a coherent object.

Concurrent

The subjective experience in Synesthesia triggered by an inducer stimulus.

Easy problem of consciousness

The problem of determining the relationship between physiological processes like nerve firing and perceptual experience. Note that this involves determining a relationship, not a cause.

Grandmother cell

A hypothesized type of neuron that responds only to a very specific stimulus, such as a person’s grandmother.

Hard problem of consciousness

The problem of determining how physiological processes, such as ion flow across nerve membranes, cause different perceptual experiences.

Inducer

A term to describe the stimulus that elicits Synesthesia.

Mind-body problem

One of the most famous problems in science: How do physical processes such as nerve impulses or sodium and potassium molecules flowing across membranes (the body part of the problem) become transformed into the richness of perceptual experience (the mind part of the problem).

Multimodal

The involvement of a number of different senses in determining perception. For example, body perception can be influenced by information from a number of different sensory signals, including for example vision and touch.

Neuronal correlates of consciousness (NCC)

Connections between the firing of neurons and perceptual experience.

Synesthesia

A condition in which stimulation of one modality (such as vision) results in an experience in another modality (such as touch). For example a person with mirror-touch Synesthesia, who observes another person being touched, may experience touch on the same part of his or her own body.