Principles of Sensory Processing

What do the senses begin with?

A stimulus

What does the Primary Somatosensory Cortex do?

processes feeling from stimuli (touch)

What does the Primary Visual Cortex do?

Processes sight stimuli

What does the Primary Auditory Cortex do?

Processes auditory stimuli

What does the Primary Gustatory Cortex do?

Processes taste stimuli

What does the Primary Olfactory Cortex do?

Processes smells

What does the Motor Cortex do?

facilitates movement

Which of the following is not a part of the sensory cortex?

Motor cortex

Where do receptors first send information to?

Spinal cord and brain stem

What direction do neurons in the brainstem synapse?

contralaterally

What does contralateral mean?

To the opposite side

What does the thalamus do?

It relays and filters information

What are two exceptions to the contralateral processing?

Olfactory cortex and Auditory Cortex

How does the Olfactory Cortex process information

ipsilaterally

How does the auditory cortex process information?

Bilaterally

What are thermo-receptors?

Receptor cells that sense hot and cold stimuli

What are Meissner's corpuscles?

Receptor cells that sense general touch

What are nociceptors?

Receptor cells that sense pain

What are Pacinian corpuscles?

Receptor cells that sense pressure

What are taste hairs?

Receptor cells that respond to things that come into contact with tongue

What are supporting cells?

Receptor cells that help the taste hairs respond to taste secondarily

What do sensory receptors do?

They convert key stimuli into action potentials

What are labelled lines>

Neurons that have special jobs and are specialized to do a specific thing

When a stimulus interacts with a receptor, it creates what?

A local change in the resting potential of a receptor cell

What is Sensory adaptation?

Progressive decrease in receptor’s response to sustained stimulation