Our Senses - Vision

Flashcards about the sense of Vision

Audition

Hearing sound as pressure waves in a medium.

Olfaction

A chemical sense related to smell.

Gustation

A chemical sense related to taste.

Body Senses

Often referred to as our body senses, including touch, kinesthesis, and equilibrium.

Transduction

The conversion of a stimulus into nerve impulses.

Light Waves

Electromagnetic energy that is the stimulus for vision.

Rods

Light receptor cells in the retina for black-and-white and brightness detection, functioning best in dim light.

Cones

Color receptors concentrated in the fovea, functioning best in bright illumination.

Bipolar Cells

Cells that synapse with rods and cones and then ganglion cells.

Ganglion Cells

One million of these cells form the optic nerve.

Optic Nerve

Sends messages to a visual relay station in the thalamus after transduction.

Feature Detectors

Cells within the primary visual cortex that fire selectively in response to visual stimuli with specific characteristics.

Visual Association Cortex

Combines and interprets information from the primary visual cortex.

Parallel Processing

Occurs when brain cell teams process combined information about color, movement, form, and depth.