Module 7, Sensation

The body senses consisting of the skin senses, the kinesthetic sense, and the vestibular senses.

• olfaction

• sensation

• somesthetic senses

• gustation

The sense of smell.

• sensation

• olfaction

• gustation

• smell neurons

The sense of taste.

• visual accommodation

• pinna

• olfaction

• gustation

The process that occurs when special neuron receptor sites in the sense organs are activated, allowing various forms of outside stimuli to become neural signals in the brain.

• sensory adaptation

• transduction

• sensation

• trichromatic theory

The process of converting outside stimuli, such as light, into neural activity.

• transduction

• sensation

• absolute threshold

• sensory adaptation

The smallest difference between two stimuli that is detectable 50 percent of the time.

• transduction

• absolute threshold

• Just noticeable difference

• visual accommodation

The lowest level of stimulation that a person can consciously detect 50 percent of the time the stimulation is present.

• pinna

• rods

• visual accommodation

• absolute threshold

Tendency of sensory receptor cells to become less responsive to a stimulus that is unchanging.

• trichromatic theory

• pinna

• sensory adaptation

• absolute threshold

As a monocular cue of depth perception, the brain’s use of information about the changing thickness of the lens of the eye in response to looking at objects that are close or far away.

• rods

• visual accommodation

• trichromatic theory

• absolute threshold

Visual sensory receptors found at the back of the retina, responsible for non-color sensitivity to low levels of light.

• rods

• cones

• sensation

• trichromatic theory