VISION

Vision's Stimulus Input: Light Energy

                

                 What strikes our eyes is pulses of electromagnetic energy that our visual system sees as color. Lights  wavelength, determines the hue, the color that's being experienced, and the Intensity, the amount of energy in light waves. Light enters the eye through the cornea, which then passes through the pupil. The iris regulates the amount of light entering the eye. Behind the pupil is the lens that focuses incoming rays into an image in a process called accommodation. The eyeball's surface on which rays focus is called the retina.

Color with various levels of Intensity

 Hue (different wavelengths result in different colors) and Saturation (ratio of dominant wavelength to other wavelengths in the color)

  Visual Processing

                  

                 The retina processes information before routing it to the cortex. The retina relays its information to a corresponding location on the occipital lobe, the visual cortex at the back of the brain. Optical nerves connect to the thalamus, and the thalamus is connected to the visual cortex.

    Photoreceptors

                  

                    Light energy strikes through the rods and cones and produces chemical changes that generate neural signals. These signals activate the bipolar cells which then activates the ganglion cells. These axons form an optic nerve that carries information to the brain.

                The opponent-process theory states that opposing retinal processes enables color vision.

Foveal Vision Problems

Nearsightedness: Nearby objects are seen more clearly then distant objects

Farsightedness: faraway objects are seen more clearly then near objects

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LINKS (Includes pictures)

http://the-expert-opinion.baltimore-eyecare.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense

http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0857853.html

http://www.ghorayeb.com/EarAnatomyDiagram.html

http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Sensory%20Interaction

http://nicci77.wikispaces.com/Sensory+Organs

https://sites.google.com/a/henrico.k12.va.us/the-sensation-senseis/home/touch

http://www.squidoo.com/graphic-design-101?utm_source=google&utm_medium=imgres&utm_campaign=framebuster

http://www.cvrl.org/gallery/Hering-opponent-colors.gif

http://cfialabioassignment.wikispaces.com/Identify+the+limited+range+of+wavelengths+of+the+electromagnetic+spectrum+detected+by+humans+and+compare+this+range+with+those+of+other+vertebrates+and+invertebrates

Mrs. Daniel's notes packet

Psychology Textbook

TOUCH/OTHER SENSES

                      The sense of touch is the mix of four distinct senses--pressure, warmth, cold, and pain.

                       Pain tells the body something has gone wrong. Caused person to feel discomfort and results in a change of their behavior (moving hand off stove because it starts to get really hot)
                     
                     The Gate control theory states our spinal cord contains neurological "gates" that either block pain or allow it to be sensed.
                       Other senses include:
 

Temperature- Sense of heat, absence of cold by the skin

Vestibular sense- allows an organism to sense direction, body movement and acceleration. Helps maintain balance

Kinesthetic sense- provides the parietal cortex of the brain with information on the relative positions of different parts of the body

Time- refers to how the passage of time is perceived or experienced

 

TASTE

                 Taste is a chemical sense. Chemicals within food react with the gustatory cells to create neural impulses. The basal cells transfer these impulses to the brain. The 5 taste sensations are sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami.

                Sensory interaction refers to the interaction of more than one sense and how they effect each other. Example: food tastes more bland when a person has a stuffy nose and can't smell properly.  Tongue Map myth is the notion that only certain parts of the tongue can sense certain sensations. This is wrong, any part of the tongue can test any sensation.

SMELL

                  Smell is a chemical sense. Odorants enter the nasal cavity to stimulate receptors in a process called Olfaction. The olfactory cells instantly alert the brain through their axon fibers. They also recognize odors independently. The Olfactory Bulb is the perception of various odors. 

                       It is also closely connected to the limbic system (hippocampus), which is why strong memories are made through smell.

                  

                 

HEARING

                  Hearing is the sense of sound perception. Humans can hear a wide range of sounds, being able to detect a wide variety of differences of sounds. An example would be a person being able to detect the sound of different voices coming from his peers.

               The result of a sound is a sound wave. They are composed of compression and rarefaction of air molecules. The strength of a sound wave varies it's loudness. The length of a sound wave is called a frequency, the number of cycles in a wave per given unit of time. A wave's frequency determines it's pitch, the perceived "highness" or "lowness" of a sound. The amplitude is the amount of energy in a wave.

               Sound waves enter the auditory canal and strike the eardrum, making it vibrate. The sound waves eventually pass through a relatively small opening leading to the inner ear. This causes the stirrup to vibrate, setting the cochlea in motion. The movement stimulates the cells to send information along the auditory nerve to the brain.

Middle and Inner Ear

The middle ear transmits the eardrum's vibrations through a piston made of three tiny bones, to a snail shaped tube in the inner ear called a cochlea .                                                      

Hearing Loss

Conduction Hearing Loss: Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea.

Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Hearing loss caused by damage to the chochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerve, also called nerve deafness. 

People tend to suffer hearing higher frequencies as they get older