Unit 2

Sensation

When sensory information gets detected by a sensory receptor

The senses

Smell, touch, taste, hear, see + balance (vestibular), body perception and movement (proprioception and kinesthesia), Pain (nociception), temperature (thermoception)

Vestibular

Balance

Proprioception

Body perception

Kinesthesia

Body movement

Nociception

Pain

Thermoception

Temperature

Perception

How sensory information gets organized, interpreted and consciously experienced

Sensory adaptation

When you stop perceiving constant stimuli for an extended periods (tuning out stimuli)

Intentional blindness

Failure to notice something visible due to actively attending to something else (gorilla during basketball)

Signal detection theory

Ability to recognize stimuli in a distracting background

Sensitivity

How well you can distinguish a signal from noise (fluctuates)

Personal decision criteria

How much evidence you personally need before deciding the signal is present

Hit

Signal is present and you think it is

False alarm

Signal not present but you think it is

Miss

Signal present and didn’t think it was

Correct rejection

Signal not present and you didn’t think it was

Hearing test

Hearing/not hearing a tone, and deciding whether or not you heard it

Does your ability to hear affect decision bias

No

Top-down

The brain applying what is already known to what is being perceived (hearing voice in cafe because you know what your voice sounds like)

Bottom up

When the brain assembles the full picture from the details up. perception driven by stimuli (new experiences)

Phantom limb sensation

Missing limb still feeling like its there.

What the brain does during Phamton limb sensation

Brain trying to rearrange sensory signals

Treatment for phantom limb sensation

Mirror therapy

Psychological component of pain

Phantom limb sensation proves

Yes

Can people born without limbs still get phantom pain

What causes phantom pain

Cut nerve endings get thicker and more sensitive, causing the sensation of pain without there actually being any