1.6 D sensation (Touch Sensation)

Touch Sensation

• Pressure

• Pain

• Thermoception (Hot/Cold)

pain

= something is wrong

Pain: Gate-Control Theory:

there is a "gate" in the spinal cord that controls whether pain signals reach the brain

Phantom Limb Sensation

Pain from missing body parts

Gustation

Transduction: chemical to neurological

papilla/papillae

gustation: Supertasters

• people with extra sensitive taste buds

• Nontasters and Medium tasters

Taste-gustation

• Sweet: Energy

• Salty: Sodium

• Sour: potentially toxic

• Bitter: potential poisons

• Umami: proteins to grow/repair

• Oleogustus: fat

Why taste?

• Connection between breast milk and later taste preferences

• Overtime: taste buds and sensitivity decreases

Smell-olfaction

• Chemical sense

• “Old” sense-does not go through thalamus

• Pheromones

• Smell and memory

Olfactory bulb

• Limbic System (amygdala and hippocampus)

• Smell declines with age

Kinesthesia

Movement sense-parietal lobe

• How you know where your limbs are when you awake at night in the dark.

Vestibular Sense

Movement sense-enables balance

Inner ear vestibular sacs

Synesthesia

You hear music but  see shapes.  

You hear a word and see a color