Lecture 5: Sensation and Perception

Thresholds
We can divide thresholds into detection thresholds and discrimination thresholds. Detection is the act of
sensing a stimulus. In some psychophysics experiments, researchers determine the smallest amount of sound,
pressure, taste, or other stimuli that an individual can detect. The level of stimulation that is right on the
perceptual borderline is known as the absolute threshold. At the absolute threshold we cannot detect
lower levels of stimuli but we can detect higher levels. Another approach to measuring detection thresholds
involves signal detection theory (SDT). This theory takes into consideration that there are four possible
outcomes on each trial in a detection experiment: the stimulus is either present or not and the participants
respond that they can detect a signal or they cannot. This allows for four possibilities: a hit, a miss, a false
alarm, or a correct rejection. SDT takes into account response bias, moods, feelings, and decision-making
strategies that affect our likelihood of making a given response.
Discrimination threshold is the ability to distinguish the difference between two stimuli. The minimum
amount of distance between two stimuli that can be detected as distinct is called the just noticeable
difference (JND) or difference threshold. Ernst Weber noticed that changes in stimuli at low levels are
much easier to notice than changes in stimuli at high levels. The observation that the JND is a proportion
of stimulus intensity is called Weber’s law.

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Vision
Humans are very visual animals... we use our sense of sight to interpret much of the world around us. What
we see is called light. However, what we see is really only a small part of the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
Humans can see only the wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation between about 380 and 760 nanometers...
this is light. Our eyes do not have detectors for wavelengths of energy less than 380 or greater than 760
nanometers, so we cannot see other types of energy such as gamma or radio waves. Rattlesnakes, however,
can detect electromagnetic radiation in the infrared range and use this ability to find prey.

First, some specifics about the eye...the human eye is about 2.5 cm in length and weighs about 7 grams.
Light passes through the cornea, pupil and lens before hitting the retina. The iris is a muscle that controls
the size of the pupil and therefore, the amount of light that enters the eye. Also, the color of your eyes is
determined by the iris.
The vitreous or vitreous humor is a clear gel that provides constant pressure to maintain the shape of the
eye. The retina is the area of the eye that contains the receptors (rods and cones) that respond to light.
The receptors respond to light by generating electrical impulses that travel out of the eye through the optic
nerve to the brain.

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Parts of the Eye

Aqueous Humor - Clear, watery fluid found in the anterior chamber of the eye.
Choroid - Layer of blood vessels that nourish the eye; also, because of the high melanocytes content, the
choroid acts as a light-absorbing layer.
Cornea - Transparent tissue covering the front of the eye. Does not have any blood vessels; does have
nerves.
Iris - Circular band of muscles that controls the size of the pupil. The pigmentation of the iris gives ”color”
to the eye. Blue eyes have the least amount of pigment; brown eyes have the most.
Lens - Transparent tissue that bends light passing through the eye. To focus light, the lens can change
shape by bending.
Pupil - Hole in the center of the eye where light passes through.
Retina - Layer of tissue on the back portion of the eye that contains cells responsive to light (photoreceptors)
Rods - Photoreceptors responsive in low light conditions.
Cones - Photoreceptors responsive to color and in bright conditions.
Sclera - Protect coating around the posterior five-sixths of the eyeball
Vitreous Humor - Clear, jelly-like fluid found in the back portion of the eye. Maintains shape of the eye.

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The Retina

The retina is the back part of the eye that contains the cells that respond to light. These specialized cells
are called photoreceptors. There are 2 types of photoreceptors in the retina: rods and cones.
The rods are most sensitive to light and dark changes, shape and movement and contain only one type of
light-sensitive pigment. Rods are not good for color vision. In a dim room, however, we use mainly our rods,
but we are color blind. Rods are more numerous than cones in the periphery of the retina. Next time you
want to see a dim star at night, try to look at it with your peripheral vision and use your scotopic vision to
see the dim star. There are about 120 million rods in the human retina.
The cones are not as sensitive to light as the rods. However, cones are most sensitive to one of three different
colors (green, red or blue). Signals from the cones are sent to the brain which then translates these messages
into the perception of color. Cones, however, work only in bright light. That’s why you cannot see color
very well in dark places. So, the cones are used for color vision and are better suited for detecting fine
details. There are about 6 million cones in the human retina. people Some people cannot tell some colors
from others - these people are color blind. Someone who is color blind does not have a particular type of
cone in the retina or one type of cone may be weak. In the general population, about 8% of all males are
color blind and about 0.5% of all females are color blind.
The fovea, is the central region of the retina that provides for the most clear vision. In the fovea, there
are NO rods... only cones. The cones are also packed closer together here in the fovea than in the rest
of the retina. Also, blood vessels and nerve fibers go around the fovea so light has a direct path to the
photoreceptors.
One part of the retina does NOT contain any photoreceptors. This is our ”blind spot”. Therefore any image
that falls on this region will NOT be seen. It is in this region that the optic nerves come together and exit
the eye on their way to the brain.

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The Optic Tract

Imagine that the colored bar (half red, half blue) is in front of your eyes. The red part of the bar will project
to the nasal part of your left retina and the temporal (lateral) part of your right retina. The blue part of
the bar will project to the nasal part of your right retina and the temportal (lateral) part of your left retina.
Like many pathways in the nervous system, right and left visual information cross to the other side of the
brain (this is called contralateral shift). This occurs in the optic chiasm. After the optic chiasm, Information
about the right visual field (blue) is on the left side of the brain, and information about the left visual field
(red) in on the right side. The pathways stay this way and all the way up to the visual cortex.
Follow the blue and red lines from the eyes to see the flow of information. From the retina, the first synapse
is in the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus. The next synapse is made in primary visual cortex in
the occiptal lobe.

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Hearing

Sound waves cause the tympanic membrane (eardrum) to vibrate. Humans can hear sounds waves with
frequencies between 20 and 20,000 Hz. The three bones in the ear (malleus, incus, stapes) pass these
vibrations on to the cochlea. The cochlea is a snail-shaped, fluid-filled structure in the inner ear. Inside the
cochlea is another structure called the organ of Corti. Hair cells are located on the basilar membrane of
the cochlea. The cilia (the hair) of the hair cells make contact with another membrane called the tectorial
membrane. When the hair cells are excited by vibration, a nerve impulse is generated in the auditory nerve.
These impulses are then sent to the brain.

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Smell

Hair cells are the receptors in the olfactory epithelium that respond to particular chemicals. These cells have
small hairs called cilia on one side and an axon on the other side. In humans, there are about 40 million
olfactory receptors; in the German Shepherd dog, there are about 2 billion olfactory receptors.
No one knows what actually causes olfactory receptors to react - it could be a chemical molecule’s shape or
size or electrical charge. The electrical activity produced in these hair cells is transmitted to the olfactory
bulb. The information is then passed on to mitral cells in the olfactory bulb.
The olfactory tract transmits the signals to the brain to areas such as the olfactory cortex, hippocampus,
amygdala, and hypothalamus. Many of these brain areas are part of the limbic system. The limbic system is
involved with emotional behavior and memory. That’s why when you smell something, it often brings back
memories associated with the object.
As you probably know, when you have a cold and your nose is stuffed up, you cannot smell very well. This
is because the molecules that carry smell cannot reach the olfactory receptors.

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Taste

The actual organ of taste is called the taste bud. Each taste bud (and there approximately 10,000 taste buds
in humans) is made up of many (between 50-150) receptor cells. Receptor cells live for only 1 to 2 weeks
and then are replaced by new receptor cells. Each receptor in a taste bud responds best to one of the basic
tastes. A receptor can respond to the other tastes, but it responds strongest to a particular taste. All tastes
are a combination of sensation of sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami.
There are two cranial nerves that innervate the tongue and are used for taste: the facial nerve (cranial nerve
VII) and the glossopharyngeal nerve (cranial nerve IX). The facial nerve innervates the anterior (front) two-
thirds of the tongue and the glossopharyngeal nerve innervates that posterior (back) one-third part of the
tongue. Another cranial nerve (the vagus nerve, X) carries taste information from the back part of the mouth.
The cranial nerves carry taste information into the brain to a part of the brain stem called the nucleus of the
solitary tract. From the nucleus of the solitary tract, taste information goes to the thalamus and then to the
cerebral cortex. Like information for smell, taste information also goes to the limbic system (hypothalamus
and amygdala). Another cranial nerve (the trigeminal nerve, V) also innervates the tongue, but is not used
for taste. Rather, the trigeminal nerve carries information related to touch, pressure, temperature and pain.

Touch
The skin has cutaneous and tactile receptors that provide information about pressure, pain, and temperature.
The receptor cells sensitive to pressure and movement are fast-conducting myelinated neurons which send
information to the spinal cord. From here the information goes to the medulla oblongata, the thalamus, and
finally to the somatosensory cortex. Pain and temperature information receptor cells are not myelinated.
They relay their information to the spinal nerves. This information projects to the limbic system and then
to the somatosensory cortex. The receptor cells for temperature can be divided into cold fibers and warm
fibers that are sensitive to their respective temperatures.

Other Senses
Other senses include the vestibular system which provides balance and proprioception which allows you to
know where your limbs are in relation to your body.