7.2 Primary Sensory Coding

Acuity

Sharpness or keenness of perception

Coding

Process by which neural signals from sensory receptors are converted into action potentials in the central nervous system

Lateral Inhibition

Method of refining sensory information in afferent neurons and ascending pathways whereby fibers inhibit each other, the most active fibers causing the greatest inhibition of adjacent fibers

Modality

Type of sensory stimulus

Receptive Field

Area of body that, if stimulated, results in activity in that neuron

Recruitment

Activation of additional cells in response to increased stimulus strength; increasing the number of active motor units in a muscle

Sensory Unit

Afferent neuron plus receptors it innervates