Jordan Givan- Assignment 6 - The Biology of Our Senses - 55 (1)

Dr. Casey Casler - CCD The Biology of Our Senses Objective: Sometimes we underestimate how much our sensory organs inform our reality. We also have the experience that our sensory systems are so accurate they aren’t ever wrong. But, consider that what you see is actually just light photons that are being converted into an electrical - chemical signal that is interpreted by the brain. Directions: Use the information from chapter 5 to answer the following questions. Please answer the questions by synthesizing the information and putting it in your own words . This will help you shorten your workload and understand the material in a much more comprehensive manner. Answers don’t have to be lengthy, just as long as needed to answer the question fully. Bullet points are fine. Students typically can answer these in 3-7 sentences. Any videos/audio files required to complete this assignment can be found in the Content section of D2L under Course Videos . 1. In your own words, what is the difference between sensation and perception? Sensation occurs when sensory information is detected by a sensory receptor, while perception occurs when sensory information is organized, interpreted, and consciously experienced. According to the text what are the 9 kinds of senses we have? 2. vision 3. hearing 4. smell 5. taste 6. touch 7. balance 8. body position and movement 9. pain 10.temperature THE EYE For the picture above, please label the following structures of the AND briefly describe their functions (what they do): cornea, fovea, lens, optic nerve, retina, iris. Name of Structure Function / Role / What It Does

Dr. Casey Casler - CCD 11. Cornea 12.Serves as a barrier between the inner eye and the outside world. It helps focus light waves that enter the eye. 13. Pupil 14.Light passes through the pupil, and the size of the pupil can change due to light levels as well as emotional arousal. 15. Iris 16.The colored portion of the eye. The pupil is controlled by muscles that are connected to the iris. 17. Lens 18.Serves to provide additional focus. It is attached to muscles that can change its shape to aid in focusing light that is reflected from objects. 19. Optic nerve 20.Carries visual information from the retina to the brain. 21. Fovea 22.Is a small indentation on the back of the eye that the lens focuses images perfectly. 23. Retina 24.The retina is the light-sensitive lining of the eye. How are rods and cones different? 25.Rods : Work well in low light conditions and they are involved in our vision in dimly lit environments as well as in our perception of movement on the periphery of our visual field. 26.Cones : Work best in bright light conditions and are sensitive to acute detail and provide tremendous spatial resolution. They are also involved in our ability to perceive color. 27.What happens when you experience night blindness? Night blindness occurs when our rods do not transform light into nerve impulses as easily and efficiently as they should. For the picture above, please label the following structures of the AND briefly describe their functions (what they do): occipital lobe, optic nerve, optic chiasm, eye. Name of Structure Function / Role / What It Does 28. Eye 29.Contains blind spots. Each eye has two slightly different views, so blind spots don’t overlap. Our visual system fills in the blind spots, so we don’t notice that information is missing.

Dr. Casey Casler - CCD Even though Graham couldn’t see out of his right field, his brain was able to process information from that side of his eyesight. His damage is only in his visual cortex and not his brain. After an experiment he is able to guess which direction the light is moving correctly even though he doesn’t have vision on his right side. One part of his brain lights up when he can’t actually see the light, and another part of the brain lights up when he can see the light. 51. Watch the video “Losing One’s Touch - Proprioception” and write a brief reaction to it. For example: what was the take home point? What did you? Dislike? Agree with? Disagree with? What surprised you? (5-10 sentences). A man suddenly lost ability to control his movements. He was able to move his limbs, but not in the way he wanted. In order to be able to walk, he has to be looking at his feet in order to move them correctly. He has no sense of touch below his neck and he is unable to sense where his limbs are or how they move. He has to think about how his limbs move or he would end up losing the ability to control them properly. I found it interesting that he is one of the few people with these disorder that was able to fully regain control over his movements. 52. Watch the video “Synesthesia” and write a brief reaction to it. For example: what was the take home point? What did you? Dislike? Agree with? Disagree with? What surprised you? (5-10 sentences). James not hears words, he can also taste them. Every word/name has a different taste. Some words can have a stronger taste than others He is not able to control which word gets a certain taste. It is hard for him to cook food while also talking because the different flavors conflict with what he is making. Testing different words that rhyme showed that James associated the words with different variations of the same flavor. A lot of flavors James tastes are associated with his childhood, not from foods later in life. 53. Watch the video “The Man Who Cannot Recognize Faces” and write a brief reaction to it. For example: what was the take home point? What did you? Dislike? Agree with? Disagree with? What surprised you? (5-10 sentences). Lincoln was in a car accident that damaged an isolated part of his brain, he is now face blind It is hard for people to believe he has face blindness because he isn’t actually blind He isn’t able to recognize the face of his wife He isn’t able to recognize Marilyn Monroe until he was given details about her When shown a picture of himself, he wasn’t able to identify who it was. 54. Watch the video “The McGurk Effect” and write a brief reaction to it. For example: what was the take home point? What did you? Dislike? Agree with? Disagree with? What surprised you? (5-10 sentences). The McGurk effect occurs when we hear the “ba” sound while seeing a person making a fa face, we end up hearing “fa” instead of “ba”. What we see overrides what we hear. The mouth movements we see as we look at a person can influence what we think we hear. The McGurk effect will work even if you know a lot about it. The effect helps us see what happens when our senses have conflict We can’t always trust what we hear because our sense of vision can sometimes take over and alter what we hear 55. Watch the video “The Rubber Hand Illusion” and write a brief reaction to it. For example: what was the take home point? What did you? Dislike? Agree with? Disagree with? What surprised you? (5-10 sentences). The rubber hand illusion is an experiment that can cause a person to believe the rubber hand is their actual hand. The participants have to hide their actual hand behind a divider, their hands are then primed which helps the brain link the feeling to the fake hand. He then hits the hand with a hammer and the people at first think it is their hand 10% of the people who participated weren’t able to mentally connect the rubber hand as their own. 30% of our brains are devoted to sight, so when you visually see something you are more

Dr. Casey Casler - CCD likely to believe it even if you know its not real. Summary: Our sensory organs are how we take in all information about the world. And remember, all the information that we receive from the external environment is converted into an electro-chemical signal the brain can understand. So, in many ways, our world and experience is just an interpretation made by the brain.