CAS PS 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Olfactory Bulb, Taste Bud, Absolute Threshold

• School: Boston University
• Department: Psychological & Brain Sciences
• Course: CAS PS 101
• Professor: Robert Reinhart

Document Summary

Sensation: our sense organs" detection & response to external stimulus energy & transmission of responses to brain. Perception: brain"s processing of detected signals resulting in internal representation of stimuli that form a conscious experience of the world. Stimulus: environment we are trying to understand/interact with. Transduction: process which sensory receptors produce neural impulses when they receive physical/chemical stimulation. Brain needs qualitative & quantitative information about stimulus. Psychophysics: measures relationship between stimuli & perception; examines psychological experiences of physical stimuli. Smell receptors transmit information to olfactory bulb (3) touch (a) haptic sense: sense of temperature, pressure, pain (b) receptive field: region in space that sensory neuron is sensitive to (c) 2 kinds of nerve fibers for pain (i) (ii) With exception to olfaction, all sensory info is first relayed to thalamus. Information is projected from thalamus to primary sensory areas of cortex. Auditory neurons in thalamus extend axons to primary auditory cortex.