PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Neural Adaptation, Taste, Psychophysics

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jordan Poppenk

Document Summary

Very low-frequency vibrations (infrasound) humans cannot discern very low-frequency. Humans can detect radiation only in a very narrow frequency band called, for obvious reasons, visible light, which includes light of all colors. Radio waves have a longer wavelength and lower frequency than the visible light that humans can detect. Our vision does not extend down into what is called the infra-red region, which includes thermal radiation that we detect as heat. Many animals that depend on navigation (such as some migratory birds) can sense magnetic fields. How adaptation works: for neurons to use a temporal code means that psychologically important information is coded in the firing rate of neurons, spontaneous rate: rate of neuronal firing when no stimulus is present. If a neuron becomes fatigued as a result of sensory adaptation, its rate of signalling may fall below the spontaneous rate, or minimum detectable level, and your body no longer notices the stimulus.