GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY

SEMINAR
GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY
SEMINAR
GROUP-4 MEMBERS

LEANDRA GEORGE 22MPSC31

MANJIMA DAS 22MPSC32
MANSHI BEGAL 22MPSC33
MARFUHA TABASSUM 22MPSC34
TANIA MISTRY 22MPSC35
NARMADA . N 22MPSC36
NAYANA MARY JOHN 22MPSC37
NEEL THOMAS 22MPSC38
NEHA DAS 22MPSC39
NEHA NASIR 22MPSC40
SENSATION
1- VISUAL
2- AUDITORY
3- OLFACTORY
4- GUSTATORY
5- SOMATOSENSORY
 WHAT IS SENSATION?

● Sensation is any concrete, conscious experience resulting from stimulation of

a specific sense organ, sensory nerve, or sensory area in the brain.
● More empirically inclined psychologists and physiologists prefer to regard
sensation as a concept defined in terms of dependent relationships between
discriminatory responses of organisms and properties of physical stimuli.
● In layman terms, sensation is something that we sense because of a stimulus
and it leads us to respond to it. Sensation is the process by which our senses
gather information and send it to the brain.
ABOUT SENSATION:
● Sensing elements or sensors, in automated systems indicate characteristics
(like presence, absence, intensity, or degree) of some form of energy
impinging on them.
● These sensors are called transducers; they convert their input energy into
electrical currents that can be used as signals.
● For each of the five senses, there are specialized neural pathways and an
associated brain area dedicated to processing information gathered by that
sense.
● The receptors perceiving the different types of stimuli is known as reception.
SENSORY RECEPTOR POINTS

● The 4 sensory receptors are known as:

1. CHEMORECEPTORS (for chemicals)
2. MECHANORECEPTORS (for physical sensory influences)
3. PHOTORECEPTORS (for light)
4. THERMORECEPTORS (for temperature)
● These different receptors represent different types of nerve cells that occupy
space in the various sensing organs of the body and are ready to receive
sensory information from the environment.
 THRESHOLDS

In psychophysics, sensory threshold is the weakest stimulus that an organism can sense.

The lower the threshold, the greater is the sensitivity.

Several different sensory thresholds have been defined:

● ABSOLUTE THRESHOLD: the lowest level at which a stimulus can be detected.

● RECOGNITION THRESHOLD: the level at which a stimulus can not only be
detected but also recognised. (where is it felt, the intensity, and the degree of
stimulus)
● DIFFERENTIAL THRESHOLD: the level at which an increase in a detected
stimulus can be perceived.
● TERMINAL THRESHOLD: the level beyond which a stimulus is no longer
detected.
MEASURING AND TESTING SENSORY
THRESHOLDS
Following Weber's work, Gustav Fechner, a pioneer of psychophysics, studied the
relationship between the physical intensity of a stimulus and the psychologically
perceived intensity of the stimulus. The three ways to measure the threshold are:

1. METHOD OF LIMITS
2. METHOD OF CONSTANT STIMULI
3. ADAPTIVE METHOD
VISUAL
 WHAT IS VISUAL SENSATION?
The sensory experience which brings into awareness objects in the environment through the act
of seeing is referred to as ‘vision’ or ‘visual sensation’.

MECHANISM OF VISUAL SENSATION–

Light rays from external objects impinge on the human eye. The human eye is more or less
similar to a camera. The light rays pass through the lens and strike the inner layer of the eye
known as the retina. The retina is comparable to the film in the camera.

The lens in the human eye can expand or contract through the actions of a set of muscles known
as the Ciliary muscles. The ciliary muscles act depending on the intensity of the light rays and
thereby regulate the functioning of the lens.
 PARTS OF AN EYE

● Cornea
● Iris
● Retina
● Optic Nerve
● Pupil
HOW DOES VISION OCCUR?
Light waves enter the eye through the cornea: which is a transparent protective
structure at the front of the eye. Behind the cornea is the pupil, the opening in the
iris that regulates the amount of light entering the eye.
Light then reaches the lens: A flexible, elastic, transparent, structure in the eye
that changes its shape to focus light on the retina.
Light then hits the retina: The innermost coating of the back of the eye,
containing the light-sensitive receptor cells. The fovea is the most sensitive area
of the retina because it has the greatest concentration of cones. Rods and cones
are the photoreceptors.
"Neuronal Impulses" are sent down the optic nerve- the nerve that carries
impulses from the retina to the brain.
SENSORY ADAPTATION
Example– the shift from day vision to night vision.

When we enter a cinema-hall.

When we enter a brightly lit place.

This is because such experiences involve a shift from rod vision to cone
vision or vice versa. This shift naturally takes some time. The
phenomenon of sensory adaptation is a process of adaptation from one
type of visual reaction to another type.
 THE DUPLICITY THEORY OF VISION

The retina consists of two types of structures, rods and cones. The rods
are sensitive to achromatic (black and white) light rays while the cones
are sensitive to chromatic (colour) light rays.

The rods are more predominant in the outer regions of the retina. This
region of the retina is primarily involved in our seeing of form, outline
and black and white elements. The central region is dominated by cones
and is responsible for colour vision. This point is important in
understanding the phenomenon of colour blindness. Some individuals
are not able to see colour. This is because of the underdevelopment or
damage to the cones.
 TRANSDUCTION
● Sensation occurs when receptors in the sense organs ( the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin) are activated
allowing outside stimuli to become neural signals in the brain. This process of converting outside stimuli
into neural activity is called transduction. The neural impulse carries a code of the sensory event in a form
that can be further processed by the brain.
● All senses involve something called receptor cells. Their job is to transduce(transform) physical
stimulation from the environment into electrochemical messages that can be understood by the brain.
● For example, light that enters the eye causes chemical changes in cells that line the back of the eye. These
cells relay messages, in the form of action potentials to the central nervous system.
In auditory transduction, auditory refers to hearing, and transduction is the process by which the ear
converts sound waves into electric impulses and sends them to brain so we can interpret them as sound.
COLOR VISION
● Our ability to see colors is possible because of the functioning of the cones. It is estimated that there are six
million cones and that they are found concentrated in the central part of the retina.
● Cones are located all over the retina but more are concentrated at its very center where there are no rods ,
so cones work best in bright light. Cones are sensitive to different wavelengths of light, so they are
responsible for color vision. Some wavelengths are reflected more than others
● So this property of reflecting some wavelengths more than others is a characteristic of chromatic color
(color that contains no hint of white, black or gray) , which is called selective reflection.
● When light reflection is flat across the spectrum means if it does not contain no color such as white, black
and all grays between these two extremes then it is called achromatic colors.
● Most colors in the environment are created by the way objects reflect at some wavelengths, but in some
cases where the object is transparent such as glass or liquid, where chromatic color is created by selective
transmission, so only some wavelengths pass through the object.
 COLOR BLINDNESS
● Color blindness is caused by defective cones in the retina of the eye; it means that a person is
having trouble seeing red, green, blue and in some rare cases a person sees no color at all.
Types of color blindness:
1. Trichromacy: normal color vision
2. Anomalous trichromacy: see all three primary colors but one color is seen weakly
● Protanomaly: (l-cone defect) red is weak
● Deuteranomaly: (M-cone defect) green is week
● Tritanomaly:(S-cone defect) blue is weak
1. Dichromacy: see only 2-3 primary colors; one cone is dysfunctional or absent
● Protanopia: (l-cone absent)
● Deuteranopia: (M-cone absent)
● Tritanopia: (S-cone absent)
1. Rod monochromacy: no cones are present; and only sees shades of gray
AUDITORY SYSTEM AUDITORY SYSTEM
 SENSORY PROCESS-
Hearing
The auditory system processes how we hear and understand sounds
within the environment. It is made up of both peripheral structures
(outer, middle, and inner ear) and brain regions (cochlear nuclei,
superior olivary nuclei, lateral lemniscus, inferior colliculus, medial
geniculate nuclei, and auditory cortex).
The stimuli for our sense of hearing are sound waves, a form of
mechanical energy.
 STRUCTURE OF THE EAR -
1. THE OUTER EAR - The pinna is the visible, external part of the ear that serves as a
kind of concentrator, funneling the sound waves from the outside into the structure of
the ear. The pinna is also the entrance to the auditory canal (or ear canal), the short
tunnel that runs down to the tympanic membrane, or eardrum. When sound waves hit
the eardrum, they cause three tiny bones in the middle ear to vibrate.

1. THE MIDDLE EAR- The three tiny bones in the middle ear are known as the hammer
(malleus), anvil (incus), and stirrup (stapes), each name stemming from the shape of the
respective bone. Collectively they are referred to as the ossicles and they are the
smallest bones in the human body. The vibration of these three bones amplifies the
vibrations from the eardrum. Eustachian tube is a canal that links the middle ear with
the back of the nose this tube helps to equalize the pressure in the middle ear.
3. THE INNER EAR- Inner ear consisting of
cochlea, vestibule and semicircular canals.
Cochlea contains the nerves for hearing,
vestibule contains receptors for balance,
semicircular canals contains receptors for
balance.
 Functions of Auditory System
The ear has three distinguishable parts: the outer, middle, and inner ear.

The function of the outer ear is to collect sound waves and guide them to the
tympanic membrane. commonly called the eardrum.

The function of the outer ear is to collect sound waves and guide them to the
tympanic membrane. The middle ear is a narrow air-filled cavity in the
temporal bone.

The inner ear consists of two functional units: the vestibular apparatus ,
consisting of the vestibule and semicircular canals, which contains the sensory
organs of postural equilibrium; and the snail-shell-like cochlea, which contains
the sensory organ of hearing.
 The outer ear(functions)

The Auricle (pinna) is the visible portion of the outer ear. It

collects sound waves and channels them into the ear canal
(external auditory meatus), where the sound is amplified.

The sound waves then travel toward a flexible, oval membrane

at the end of the ear canal called the eardrum, or tympanic
membrane. Sound waves cause the eardrum to vibrate.
 The Middle Ear
The vibrations from the eardrum set the ossicles into motion

The ossicles are actually tiny bones — the smallest in the human body.
The three bones are named after their shapes: the malleus (hammer), incus
(anvil) and stapes (stirrup). The ossicles further amplify the sound.

The tiny stapes bone attaches to the oval window that connects the middle
ear to the inner ear.

The Eustachian tube, which opens into the middle ear, is responsible for
equalizing the pressure between the air outside the ear and that within the
middle ear.
 The Inner Ear
The sound waves enter the inner ear and then into the cochlea, a snail-shaped
organ.

The cochlea is filled with a fluid that moves in response to the vibrations
from the oval window. As the fluid moves, 25,000 nerve endings are set into
motion.

These nerve endings transform the vibrations into electrical impulses that
then travel along the eighth cranial nerve (auditory nerve) to the brain.

The brain then interprets these signals, and this is how we hear.

The inner ear also contains the vestibular organ that is responsible for
balance.
OLFACTORY
 STRUCTURE
● Olfactory system is the sense of smell. When clubbed together with the gustatory system (taste),
both form the chemosensory system as they provide information to the the brain about the chemical
composition of objects via the process of transduction.
● The receptors for the sense of smell are located in the olfactory epithelium, at the top of the nasal
cavity.

Peripheral Structure

● It consists of nostrils, ethmoid bone, nasal cavity and the olfactory epithelium.
● Mucous membranes, olfactory glands, olfactory neurons and nerve fibers make up the primary
components of the epithelial tissue layers.
● Odor molecules enter the peripheral pathway through olfaction or retro-nasal olfaction.
● Mucus lining is present on the walls of the nasal cavity dissolves odor molecules.
● Mucus that covers the olfactory epithelium contains mucous membranes used for production and
storage of mucus and olfactory glands.
● The vomeronasal organ (VNO/Jacobson's Organ) is an accessory olfactory organ located at the
anterior inferior third of the nasal septum.
The
Olfactory
System
Structure
Central Structure

● The olfactory bulb is a neural structure of the vertebrate forebrain that

determines olfaction. Mitral cells and tufted cells (in olfactory glomeruli) are
a part of it which determines the odor concentration.
● The olfactory cortex is found in the uncus. It consists of piriform cortex,
amygdala, olfactory tubercle and parahippocampal gyrus.
● The amygdala, thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, brain stem, retina,
auditory cortex and olfactory system are connected through the olfactory
tubercle.
● The Stria terminalis, specifically bed nuclei (BNST), is the information
pathway between the amygdala and hypothalamus and and pituitary gland. It
also has a connection to the septal area.
● The anterior olfactory nucleus is the memory hub for smell.
 FUNCTIONS
● The olfactory system is pretty much the system you use to detect odor.
The mechanism the system uses is can be divided into a peripheral part
and a central part.
● The peripheral part is used to sense an odor and encode it in a neuron,
while the central part the neuron is processed in the central nervous
system.
● The olfactory bulb, which sends those signals to the brain is part of the
peripheral section of the Olfactory System.Epithelium, which is part of
the central section collects chemical signals.
 FUNCTIONS
● The sense of smell, involving stimulation of receptor cells in the olfactory
epithelium (located in the nasal passages) by airborne volatile substances
called odorants.
● Smells seem to trigger behavior and start trains of thought; smells judged
as pleasant may set off approach behavior, while smells judged as
unpleasant may arouse avoidance behavior. And smells can also serve to
trigger memories of past emotional experiences.
● Able to smell only a limited number of seven primary odours: resinous
(camphor); floral(roses); minty(peppermint); etheral (pears); musky(musk
oil); acrid(vinegar) and putrid(rotten eggs)
● Nearly all of the chemicals that humans can detect are organic
compounds.
● For most animals, smell is important for both survival and
communication. The olfactory organs in dogs are much larger
than those in humans.
● The receptors for smell respond to chemical substances,
especially if those substances are volatile. Smell receptors are
located high up in the nasal passages leading from the nostrils to
the throat.
● They lie in two small patches, one on the left and one on the
right, in the roofs of these passages
● The sensitivity of the smell receptors is impressive. People can
detect incredibly small amounts of odorous substances.
GUSTATORY
STRUCTURE
● Gustatory system is the sense of smell that is partially responsible for our
perception of taste. When it works with olfaction and trigeminal nerve
stimulation, we can determine the flavours of various substances.
● The sensory receptors for taste are located within small bumps on the
tongue called the papillae.
● Each papillae has a cluster of taste buds, which further contains several
receptor cells.
● The four types of papillae includes foliate, circumvallate, fungiform and
filiform. Filiform papillae is the only bump without any taste buds.
● The interaction between the sapid molecules and taste receptors in
specialized epithelial gustatory cells give the perception of taste.
The
Gustatory
System
Structure
 FUNCTIONS
A. There are five basic taste :

● Sweet
● Sour
● Salty
● Bitter
● Umami

Taste buds on our tongue that sense the

chemicals in our foods and drinks.
B. Saliva: Its main role includes transport of taste substances to and protection of
the taste receptor. In the initial process of taste perception
C.Taste receptors or tastant is a type of cellular receptor which facilitates the
sensation of taste. When food or other substances enter the mouth, molecules
interact with saliva and are bound to taste receptors in the oral cavity and other
locations.
D.Taste buds contain the taste receptor cells, which are also known as gustatory
cells. The taste receptors are located around the small structures known as
papillae
E. Papillae:are the tiny raised protrusions on the tongue that contain taste buds. The four
types of papillae are filiform, fungiform, foliate, and circumvallate. Except for the
filiform, these papillae allow us to differentiate between sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and
umami (or savory) flavors.
F. Gustatory hairs: Located at the top of gustatory cells is a taste pore where food
molecules come in contact with gustatory hairs. The hairs then send an electrical
impulse to the brain through the cranial nerve and are used for detecting taste.
SOMATOSENSORY
The somatosensory system is the network of neural structures in the brain and body
that produce the perception of the sense of touch (via mechanoreceptors), pain (via
nociceptors), temperature (via thermal receptors) and proprioception (via
proprioceptors), which is the sense of where the body is in space.

The somatosensory system functions in the body’s periphery, spinal cord, and the
brain.

● Periphery: Sensory receptors (i.e., thermoreceptors, mechanoreceptors,

etc.) detect the various stimuli.
● Spinal cord: Afferent pathways in the spinal cord serve to pass
information from the periphery and the rest of the body to the brain.
● Brain: Somatosensory cortex sits in the parietal lobe.
A somatosensory pathway will typically have three neurons:

Primary : sensory receptors within the periphery of the

somatosensory cortex which are able to detect various stimuli
such as touch or temperature.

Secondary : located within the spinal cord and brainstem and

act as a relay station.

Afferent pathways (which carry signals to the central nervous

system) in the spinal cord and brainstem working by passing
information from the periphery and the rest of the body to the
brain. These will then terminate in either the thalamus or the
cerebellum.

Tertiary : located within the thalamus and cerebellum, will

then project to the somatosensory cortex.
SKIN SENSES

● The skin senses, also called somatosenses, give

us information required to adapt to the
environment.
● The skin can be thought of as a “giant sense
organ” that covers the body.
● 4 skin senses - pressure or touch, cold,
warmth, and pain.
● Punctuate sensitivity - The skin is not
uniformly sensitive.
● Most sensitive areas - Tip of the tongue, Lip,
Fingers and Hands.
● Least sensitive areas - The Trunk and
Calloused Areas
 PRESSURE OR TOUCH TEMPERATURE

● Gradient of skin temperature - It is the

● The sensation a person who is touched
changes in the difference between the
lightly on the skin reports is called either
temperature of the skin surface and the
pressure or touch.
temperature of the blood circulating
● The amount of physical pressure required
beneath it.
to produce this experience varies greatly for
● Experiences of cold and warmth are elicited
different parts of the body.
by changes in the normal gradient of skin
● We experience touch, it should be noted,
temperature.
not only when some object presses on the
● In skin maps, the cold spots and warm
skin but also when hair on the body are
spots are found in different places.
slightly moved.
 PAIN

● Pain is a skin sense, but of course pain is felt from the interior of the body too.
● Pain may also trigger aggression against the source of the pain or even against neutral objects
in the environment.
● Pain has immense biological importance because it may signal that something is wrong with
the body.
● Many different stimuli produce pain-a needle prick, scalding steam, a cut, a hard blow to the
skin, inflammation and swelling, or strong chemical stimulation of the skin. This pain is called
noxious stimulation.
● Noxious - from the Latin word meaning "to injure”.
● Pain relievers - Enkephalins and Endorphins (self-produced opiates), Analgesics (pain
killers), Opiates (morphine and morphine like compounds), Acupuncture anaesthesia,
Hypnosis, Placebo.
Homunculus
A cortical homunculus is a distorted representation of the human
body, based on a neurological "map" of the areas and proportions
of the human brain dedicated to processing motor functions, or
sensory functions, for different parts of the body. Nerve fibres—
conducting somatosensory information from all over the body—
terminate in various areas of the parietal lobe in the cerebral
cortex, forming a representational map of the body.

Areas of the body with more complex and/or more numerous

sensory or motor connections are represented as larger in the
homunculus, while those with less complex and/or less numerous
connections are represented as smaller. The resulting image is that
of a distorted human body, with disproportionately huge hands,
lips, and face.
CONCLUSION
Sensation is the first step of converting energy into our experience of our environment.
Each of the five sensory systems of vision, hearing, touch, taste (gustation) and smell
(olfaction) convert environmental stimuli into neurological impulses the brain assembles
into our experience of the world around us.

Gestalt theorists have been incredibly influential in the areas of sensation and perception.
Gestalt principles such as figure-ground relationship, grouping by proximity or similarity,
the law of good continuation, and closure are all used to help explain how we organize
sensory information.
REFERENCES
● https://www.psychologydiscussion.net/visual-sensation/visual-sensation-retina-characteristics-
and-theories-psychology/2916
● Baron, Mishra, R., 2002. Psychology Indian Subcontinent Edition. 5th ed. Noida: Pearson,
pp.374-376
● https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Introductory_and_General_Biology/Book%3A_General_
Biology_(Boundless)/36%3A_Sensory_Systems/36.02%3A_Sensory_Processes_-
_Transduction_and_Perception
● Lisker L. ‘‘Voicing’’ in English: a catalogue of acous- tic features signaling /b/ versus /p/ in
Trochees. Lang Speech 1986, 29:3 – 11.
● Holt LL, Lotto AJ. Speech perception within an audi- tory cognitive science framework. Curr
Dir Psychol Sci 2008, 17:42–46.
● Yost WA. Fundamentals of Hearing: An Introduction. Massachusetts: Academic Press; 2007.
● Guy-Evans, O. Somatosensory Cortex Function and Location | Simply Psychology. Retrieved 9
September 2022, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/somatosensory-cortex.html
● Course hero. Boundless Anatomy and Physiology | | Course Hero. (n.d.). Retrieved September 9, 2022,
from https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/boundless-ap/the-somatosensory-system/
GROUP-4 MEMBERS

LEANDRA GEORGE 22MPSC31

MANJIMA DAS 22MPSC32
MANSHI BEGAL 22MPSC33
MARFUHA TABASSUM 22MPSC34
TANIA MISTRY 22MPSC35
NARMADA . N 22MPSC36
NAYANA MARY JOHN 22MPSC37
NEEL THOMAS 22MPSC38
NEHA DAS 22MPSC39
NEHA NASIR 22MPSC40
SENSATION
1- VISUAL
2- AUDITORY
3- OLFACTORY
4- GUSTATORY
5- SOMATOSENSORY
 WHAT IS SENSATION?

● Sensation is any concrete, conscious experience resulting from stimulation of

a specific sense organ, sensory nerve, or sensory area in the brain.
● More empirically inclined psychologists and physiologists prefer to regard
sensation as a concept defined in terms of dependent relationships between
discriminatory responses of organisms and properties of physical stimuli.
● In layman terms, sensation is something that we sense because of a stimulus
and it leads us to respond to it. Sensation is the process by which our senses
gather information and send it to the brain.
ABOUT SENSATION:
● Sensing elements or sensors, in automated systems indicate characteristics
(like presence, absence, intensity, or degree) of some form of energy
impinging on them.
● These sensors are called transducers; they convert their input energy into
electrical currents that can be used as signals.
● For each of the five senses, there are specialized neural pathways and an
associated brain area dedicated to processing information gathered by that
sense.
● The receptors perceiving the different types of stimuli is known as reception.
SENSORY RECEPTOR POINTS

● The 4 sensory receptors are known as:

1. CHEMORECEPTORS (for chemicals)
2. MECHANORECEPTORS (for physical sensory influences)
3. PHOTORECEPTORS (for light)
4. THERMORECEPTORS (for temperature)
● These different receptors represent different types of nerve cells that occupy
space in the various sensing organs of the body and are ready to receive
sensory information from the environment.
 THRESHOLDS

In psychophysics, sensory threshold is the weakest stimulus that an organism can sense.

The lower the threshold, the greater is the sensitivity.

Several different sensory thresholds have been defined:

● ABSOLUTE THRESHOLD: the lowest level at which a stimulus can be detected.

● RECOGNITION THRESHOLD: the level at which a stimulus can not only be
detected but also recognised. (where is it felt, the intensity, and the degree of
stimulus)
● DIFFERENTIAL THRESHOLD: the level at which an increase in a detected
stimulus can be perceived.
● TERMINAL THRESHOLD: the level beyond which a stimulus is no longer
detected.
MEASURING AND TESTING SENSORY
THRESHOLDS
Following Weber's work, Gustav Fechner, a pioneer of psychophysics, studied the
relationship between the physical intensity of a stimulus and the psychologically
perceived intensity of the stimulus. The three ways to measure the threshold are:

1. METHOD OF LIMITS
2. METHOD OF CONSTANT STIMULI
3. ADAPTIVE METHOD
VISUAL
 WHAT IS VISUAL SENSATION?
The sensory experience which brings into awareness objects in the environment through the act
of seeing is referred to as ‘vision’ or ‘visual sensation’.

MECHANISM OF VISUAL SENSATION–

Light rays from external objects impinge on the human eye. The human eye is more or less
similar to a camera. The light rays pass through the lens and strike the inner layer of the eye
known as the retina. The retina is comparable to the film in the camera.

The lens in the human eye can expand or contract through the actions of a set of muscles known
as the Ciliary muscles. The ciliary muscles act depending on the intensity of the light rays and
thereby regulate the functioning of the lens.
 PARTS OF AN EYE

● Cornea
● Iris
● Retina
● Optic Nerve
● Pupil
HOW DOES VISION OCCUR?
Light waves enter the eye through the cornea: which is a transparent protective
structure at the front of the eye. Behind the cornea is the pupil, the opening in the
iris that regulates the amount of light entering the eye.
Light then reaches the lens: A flexible, elastic, transparent, structure in the eye
that changes its shape to focus light on the retina.
Light then hits the retina: The innermost coating of the back of the eye,
containing the light-sensitive receptor cells. The fovea is the most sensitive area
of the retina because it has the greatest concentration of cones. Rods and cones
are the photoreceptors.
"Neuronal Impulses" are sent down the optic nerve- the nerve that carries
impulses from the retina to the brain.
SENSORY ADAPTATION
Example– the shift from day vision to night vision.

When we enter a cinema-hall.

When we enter a brightly lit place.

This is because such experiences involve a shift from rod vision to cone
vision or vice versa. This shift naturally takes some time. The
phenomenon of sensory adaptation is a process of adaptation from one
type of visual reaction to another type.
 THE DUPLICITY THEORY OF VISION

The retina consists of two types of structures, rods and cones. The rods
are sensitive to achromatic (black and white) light rays while the cones
are sensitive to chromatic (colour) light rays.

The rods are more predominant in the outer regions of the retina. This
region of the retina is primarily involved in our seeing of form, outline
and black and white elements. The central region is dominated by cones
and is responsible for colour vision. This point is important in
understanding the phenomenon of colour blindness. Some individuals
are not able to see colour. This is because of the underdevelopment or
damage to the cones.
 TRANSDUCTION
● Sensation occurs when receptors in the sense organs ( the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin) are activated
allowing outside stimuli to become neural signals in the brain. This process of converting outside stimuli
into neural activity is called transduction. The neural impulse carries a code of the sensory event in a form
that can be further processed by the brain.
● All senses involve something called receptor cells. Their job is to transduce(transform) physical
stimulation from the environment into electrochemical messages that can be understood by the brain.
● For example, light that enters the eye causes chemical changes in cells that line the back of the eye. These
cells relay messages, in the form of action potentials to the central nervous system.
In auditory transduction, auditory refers to hearing, and transduction is the process by which the ear
converts sound waves into electric impulses and sends them to brain so we can interpret them as sound.
COLOR VISION
● Our ability to see colors is possible because of the functioning of the cones. It is estimated that there are six
million cones and that they are found concentrated in the central part of the retina.
● Cones are located all over the retina but more are concentrated at its very center where there are no rods ,
so cones work best in bright light. Cones are sensitive to different wavelengths of light, so they are
responsible for color vision. Some wavelengths are reflected more than others
● So this property of reflecting some wavelengths more than others is a characteristic of chromatic color
(color that contains no hint of white, black or gray) , which is called selective reflection.
● When light reflection is flat across the spectrum means if it does not contain no color such as white, black
and all grays between these two extremes then it is called achromatic colors.
● Most colors in the environment are created by the way objects reflect at some wavelengths, but in some
cases where the object is transparent such as glass or liquid, where chromatic color is created by selective
transmission, so only some wavelengths pass through the object.
 COLOR BLINDNESS
● Color blindness is caused by defective cones in the retina of the eye; it means that a person is
having trouble seeing red, green, blue and in some rare cases a person sees no color at all.
Types of color blindness:
1. Trichromacy: normal color vision
2. Anomalous trichromacy: see all three primary colors but one color is seen weakly
● Protanomaly: (l-cone defect) red is weak
● Deuteranomaly: (M-cone defect) green is week
● Tritanomaly:(S-cone defect) blue is weak
1. Dichromacy: see only 2-3 primary colors; one cone is dysfunctional or absent
● Protanopia: (l-cone absent)
● Deuteranopia: (M-cone absent)
● Tritanopia: (S-cone absent)
1. Rod monochromacy: no cones are present; and only sees shades of gray
AUDITORY SYSTEM AUDITORY SYSTEM
 SENSORY PROCESS-
Hearing
The auditory system processes how we hear and understand sounds
within the environment. It is made up of both peripheral structures
(outer, middle, and inner ear) and brain regions (cochlear nuclei,
superior olivary nuclei, lateral lemniscus, inferior colliculus, medial
geniculate nuclei, and auditory cortex).
The stimuli for our sense of hearing are sound waves, a form of
mechanical energy.
 STRUCTURE OF THE EAR -
1. THE OUTER EAR - The pinna is the visible, external part of the ear that serves as a
kind of concentrator, funneling the sound waves from the outside into the structure of
the ear. The pinna is also the entrance to the auditory canal (or ear canal), the short
tunnel that runs down to the tympanic membrane, or eardrum. When sound waves hit
the eardrum, they cause three tiny bones in the middle ear to vibrate.

1. THE MIDDLE EAR- The three tiny bones in the middle ear are known as the hammer
(malleus), anvil (incus), and stirrup (stapes), each name stemming from the shape of the
respective bone. Collectively they are referred to as the ossicles and they are the
smallest bones in the human body. The vibration of these three bones amplifies the
vibrations from the eardrum. Eustachian tube is a canal that links the middle ear with
the back of the nose this tube helps to equalize the pressure in the middle ear.
3. THE INNER EAR- Inner ear consisting of
cochlea, vestibule and semicircular canals.
Cochlea contains the nerves for hearing,
vestibule contains receptors for balance,
semicircular canals contains receptors for
balance.
 Functions of Auditory System
The ear has three distinguishable parts: the outer, middle, and inner ear.

The function of the outer ear is to collect sound waves and guide them to the
tympanic membrane. commonly called the eardrum.

The function of the outer ear is to collect sound waves and guide them to the
tympanic membrane. The middle ear is a narrow air-filled cavity in the
temporal bone.

The inner ear consists of two functional units: the vestibular apparatus ,
consisting of the vestibule and semicircular canals, which contains the sensory
organs of postural equilibrium; and the snail-shell-like cochlea, which contains
the sensory organ of hearing.
 The outer ear(functions)

The Auricle (pinna) is the visible portion of the outer ear. It

collects sound waves and channels them into the ear canal
(external auditory meatus), where the sound is amplified.

The sound waves then travel toward a flexible, oval membrane

at the end of the ear canal called the eardrum, or tympanic
membrane. Sound waves cause the eardrum to vibrate.
 The Middle Ear
The vibrations from the eardrum set the ossicles into motion

The ossicles are actually tiny bones — the smallest in the human body.
The three bones are named after their shapes: the malleus (hammer), incus
(anvil) and stapes (stirrup). The ossicles further amplify the sound.

The tiny stapes bone attaches to the oval window that connects the middle
ear to the inner ear.

The Eustachian tube, which opens into the middle ear, is responsible for
equalizing the pressure between the air outside the ear and that within the
middle ear.
 The Inner Ear
The sound waves enter the inner ear and then into the cochlea, a snail-shaped
organ.

The cochlea is filled with a fluid that moves in response to the vibrations
from the oval window. As the fluid moves, 25,000 nerve endings are set into
motion.

These nerve endings transform the vibrations into electrical impulses that
then travel along the eighth cranial nerve (auditory nerve) to the brain.

The brain then interprets these signals, and this is how we hear.

The inner ear also contains the vestibular organ that is responsible for
balance.
OLFACTORY
 STRUCTURE
● Olfactory system is the sense of smell. When clubbed together with the gustatory system (taste),
both form the chemosensory system as they provide information to the the brain about the chemical
composition of objects via the process of transduction.
● The receptors for the sense of smell are located in the olfactory epithelium, at the top of the nasal
cavity.

Peripheral Structure

● It consists of nostrils, ethmoid bone, nasal cavity and the olfactory epithelium.
● Mucous membranes, olfactory glands, olfactory neurons and nerve fibers make up the primary
components of the epithelial tissue layers.
● Odor molecules enter the peripheral pathway through olfaction or retro-nasal olfaction.
● Mucus lining is present on the walls of the nasal cavity dissolves odor molecules.
● Mucus that covers the olfactory epithelium contains mucous membranes used for production and
storage of mucus and olfactory glands.
● The vomeronasal organ (VNO/Jacobson's Organ) is an accessory olfactory organ located at the
anterior inferior third of the nasal septum.
The
Olfactory
System
Structure
Central Structure

● The olfactory bulb is a neural structure of the vertebrate forebrain that

determines olfaction. Mitral cells and tufted cells (in olfactory glomeruli) are
a part of it which determines the odor concentration.
● The olfactory cortex is found in the uncus. It consists of piriform cortex,
amygdala, olfactory tubercle and parahippocampal gyrus.
● The amygdala, thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, brain stem, retina,
auditory cortex and olfactory system are connected through the olfactory
tubercle.
● The Stria terminalis, specifically bed nuclei (BNST), is the information
pathway between the amygdala and hypothalamus and and pituitary gland. It
also has a connection to the septal area.
● The anterior olfactory nucleus is the memory hub for smell.
 FUNCTIONS
● The olfactory system is pretty much the system you use to detect odor.
The mechanism the system uses is can be divided into a peripheral part
and a central part.
● The peripheral part is used to sense an odor and encode it in a neuron,
while the central part the neuron is processed in the central nervous
system.
● The olfactory bulb, which sends those signals to the brain is part of the
peripheral section of the Olfactory System.Epithelium, which is part of
the central section collects chemical signals.
 FUNCTIONS
● The sense of smell, involving stimulation of receptor cells in the olfactory
epithelium (located in the nasal passages) by airborne volatile substances
called odorants.
● Smells seem to trigger behavior and start trains of thought; smells judged
as pleasant may set off approach behavior, while smells judged as
unpleasant may arouse avoidance behavior. And smells can also serve to
trigger memories of past emotional experiences.
● Able to smell only a limited number of seven primary odours: resinous
(camphor); floral(roses); minty(peppermint); etheral (pears); musky(musk
oil); acrid(vinegar) and putrid(rotten eggs)
● Nearly all of the chemicals that humans can detect are organic
compounds.
● For most animals, smell is important for both survival and
communication. The olfactory organs in dogs are much larger
than those in humans.
● The receptors for smell respond to chemical substances,
especially if those substances are volatile. Smell receptors are
located high up in the nasal passages leading from the nostrils to
the throat.
● They lie in two small patches, one on the left and one on the
right, in the roofs of these passages
● The sensitivity of the smell receptors is impressive. People can
detect incredibly small amounts of odorous substances.
GUSTATORY
STRUCTURE
● Gustatory system is the sense of smell that is partially responsible for our
perception of taste. When it works with olfaction and trigeminal nerve
stimulation, we can determine the flavours of various substances.
● The sensory receptors for taste are located within small bumps on the
tongue called the papillae.
● Each papillae has a cluster of taste buds, which further contains several
receptor cells.
● The four types of papillae includes foliate, circumvallate, fungiform and
filiform. Filiform papillae is the only bump without any taste buds.
● The interaction between the sapid molecules and taste receptors in
specialized epithelial gustatory cells give the perception of taste.
The
Gustatory
System
Structure
 FUNCTIONS
A. There are five basic taste :

● Sweet
● Sour
● Salty
● Bitter
● Umami

Taste buds on our tongue that sense the

chemicals in our foods and drinks.
B. Saliva: Its main role includes transport of taste substances to and protection of
the taste receptor. In the initial process of taste perception
C.Taste receptors or tastant is a type of cellular receptor which facilitates the
sensation of taste. When food or other substances enter the mouth, molecules
interact with saliva and are bound to taste receptors in the oral cavity and other
locations.
D.Taste buds contain the taste receptor cells, which are also known as gustatory
cells. The taste receptors are located around the small structures known as
papillae
E. Papillae:are the tiny raised protrusions on the tongue that contain taste buds. The four
types of papillae are filiform, fungiform, foliate, and circumvallate. Except for the
filiform, these papillae allow us to differentiate between sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and
umami (or savory) flavors.
F. Gustatory hairs: Located at the top of gustatory cells is a taste pore where food
molecules come in contact with gustatory hairs. The hairs then send an electrical
impulse to the brain through the cranial nerve and are used for detecting taste.
SOMATOSENSORY
The somatosensory system is the network of neural structures in the brain and body
that produce the perception of the sense of touch (via mechanoreceptors), pain (via
nociceptors), temperature (via thermal receptors) and proprioception (via
proprioceptors), which is the sense of where the body is in space.

The somatosensory system functions in the body’s periphery, spinal cord, and the
brain.

● Periphery: Sensory receptors (i.e., thermoreceptors, mechanoreceptors,

etc.) detect the various stimuli.
● Spinal cord: Afferent pathways in the spinal cord serve to pass
information from the periphery and the rest of the body to the brain.
● Brain: Somatosensory cortex sits in the parietal lobe.
A somatosensory pathway will typically have three neurons:

Primary : sensory receptors within the periphery of the

somatosensory cortex which are able to detect various stimuli
such as touch or temperature.

Secondary : located within the spinal cord and brainstem and

act as a relay station.

Afferent pathways (which carry signals to the central nervous

system) in the spinal cord and brainstem working by passing
information from the periphery and the rest of the body to the
brain. These will then terminate in either the thalamus or the
cerebellum.

Tertiary : located within the thalamus and cerebellum, will

then project to the somatosensory cortex.
SKIN SENSES

● The skin senses, also called somatosenses, give

us information required to adapt to the
environment.
● The skin can be thought of as a “giant sense
organ” that covers the body.
● 4 skin senses - pressure or touch, cold,
warmth, and pain.
● Punctuate sensitivity - The skin is not
uniformly sensitive.
● Most sensitive areas - Tip of the tongue, Lip,
Fingers and Hands.
● Least sensitive areas - The Trunk and
Calloused Areas
 PRESSURE OR TOUCH TEMPERATURE

● Gradient of skin temperature - It is the

● The sensation a person who is touched
changes in the difference between the
lightly on the skin reports is called either
temperature of the skin surface and the
pressure or touch.
temperature of the blood circulating
● The amount of physical pressure required
beneath it.
to produce this experience varies greatly for
● Experiences of cold and warmth are elicited
different parts of the body.
by changes in the normal gradient of skin
● We experience touch, it should be noted,
temperature.
not only when some object presses on the
● In skin maps, the cold spots and warm
skin but also when hair on the body are
spots are found in different places.
slightly moved.
 PAIN

● Pain is a skin sense, but of course pain is felt from the interior of the body too.
● Pain may also trigger aggression against the source of the pain or even against neutral objects
in the environment.
● Pain has immense biological importance because it may signal that something is wrong with
the body.
● Many different stimuli produce pain-a needle prick, scalding steam, a cut, a hard blow to the
skin, inflammation and swelling, or strong chemical stimulation of the skin. This pain is called
noxious stimulation.
● Noxious - from the Latin word meaning "to injure”.
● Pain relievers - Enkephalins and Endorphins (self-produced opiates), Analgesics (pain
killers), Opiates (morphine and morphine like compounds), Acupuncture anaesthesia,
Hypnosis, Placebo.
Homunculus
A cortical homunculus is a distorted representation of the human
body, based on a neurological "map" of the areas and proportions
of the human brain dedicated to processing motor functions, or
sensory functions, for different parts of the body. Nerve fibres—
conducting somatosensory information from all over the body—
terminate in various areas of the parietal lobe in the cerebral
cortex, forming a representational map of the body.

Areas of the body with more complex and/or more numerous

sensory or motor connections are represented as larger in the
homunculus, while those with less complex and/or less numerous
connections are represented as smaller. The resulting image is that
of a distorted human body, with disproportionately huge hands,
lips, and face.
CONCLUSION
Sensation is the first step of converting energy into our experience of our environment.
Each of the five sensory systems of vision, hearing, touch, taste (gustation) and smell
(olfaction) convert environmental stimuli into neurological impulses the brain assembles
into our experience of the world around us.

Gestalt theorists have been incredibly influential in the areas of sensation and perception.
Gestalt principles such as figure-ground relationship, grouping by proximity or similarity,
the law of good continuation, and closure are all used to help explain how we organize
sensory information.
REFERENCES
● https://www.psychologydiscussion.net/visual-sensation/visual-sensation-retina-characteristics-
and-theories-psychology/2916
● Baron, Mishra, R., 2002. Psychology Indian Subcontinent Edition. 5th ed. Noida: Pearson,
pp.374-376
● https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Introductory_and_General_Biology/Book%3A_General_
Biology_(Boundless)/36%3A_Sensory_Systems/36.02%3A_Sensory_Processes_-
_Transduction_and_Perception
● Lisker L. ‘‘Voicing’’ in English: a catalogue of acous- tic features signaling /b/ versus /p/ in
Trochees. Lang Speech 1986, 29:3 – 11.
● Holt LL, Lotto AJ. Speech perception within an audi- tory cognitive science framework. Curr
Dir Psychol Sci 2008, 17:42–46.
● Yost WA. Fundamentals of Hearing: An Introduction. Massachusetts: Academic Press; 2007.
● Guy-Evans, O. Somatosensory Cortex Function and Location | Simply Psychology. Retrieved 9
September 2022, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/somatosensory-cortex.html
● Course hero. Boundless Anatomy and Physiology | | Course Hero. (n.d.). Retrieved September 9, 2022,
from https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/boundless-ap/the-somatosensory-system/