Sensory Biology Lab 6
Name: Dominic Siaw
Biology 132
T.A: Marian Wahl
Date Performed: 4/7/15
Date due: 4/14/1
Abstract
In this laboratory students will perform various experiments to demonstrate various properties of human sensory biology. Students worked in pairs and performed 5 experiments. These experiments were based on touch receptors, temperature receptors, two point discrimination on the skin, locating distance from the fovea to our blind spot and measuring visual activity. T-test was performed and the results explained that there is no significant difference in how the body adapts to external stimuli.
Introduction
Sensory Biology is being able to perceive stimuli from the environment. The most common
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Examples include eyes, nose and skin. The eyes are the main sensory organs being tested in this experiment. Eyes allow us to detect visible light which is reflected on images and allows us to see them. (McMillan 35)
In this laboratory, an experiment will be conducted to explore the human senses. Most importantly the senses of touch. Various parts of the body will be tested to see how the body adapts to external simuli. These external stimui will be a coin touch, temperature and a touch from a two point discrimination. Also the ability to read from afar will be tested using the Snellen examination chart.
Experimental Procedure
The first experiment was an exercise based on adaptations of touch receptors. One student obtained a coin and a stop watch. The other student was the test subject. The test subject placed his/her palm-down on the desk. The test subject closed their eyes and a coin was placed on the back of the test subject’s hand (lower side of right most knuckle) and the stop watch was started. The clock was stopped when the test subject stopped feeling the coin. The time was recorded. The same procedure was repeated but during these times the coin was placed at 4 different locations of the hand. The time for each adaptation was recorded. This test was performed twice for each location and time for each adaptation was recorded. The T-test was then calculated to see if there is a statistically
We experience these 5 senses everyday throughout our lives, but as scientists say, although, we are aware of our 5 senses they are not used up to their full potential. This can be shown, as someone who is blind will normally have better hearing capacities than someone who is not.
Assess sensory awareness (e.g. cold from hot, dull from sharp, body part and joint sensation).
Though our sensory organs may be working fine, environmental influences may distort our interpretation of the data the organ is sending to us. For example, we could look down a street and not see anyone and think it is safe to walk down that street, but someone could be behind a tree or other object. We do not always interpret sensory data correctly no matter what sensory organ we are using. That is the most important reason we should be aware that we may not always rely on sensory information. Our senses are who we are, without them we are left to isolation and our ability to think and learn due to lack of experience. Senses are our connection from the physical world into the realm of our mind. “There is nothing in the mind unless it is first in the senses” (Kirby &
How Outside Stimuli are affected by the Five SensesAP1 ProjectShelby HardenSo, many things use the 5 senses. Each sense controls something different. Without having one of the five senses, can turn your whole life around. Treasure them all. Each function provokes every step you take in life. Outside stimuli can be received by the five senses which are sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. Sight is very important to everyday life. Light waves off an object is what lets us see. The brain connects the light wave to memories or what it might be associated with, which then allows us to precept what the object is. This process happens so fast, you never see it coming. The stimuli you get from seeing is the colors the make an object and projects feelings. Sound is precious.
The authors of this article are all credible sources, and the main contributor, Smith Roley, is the program director of sensory integration at the University of Southern California. This is significant because, sensory integration is where Ayres dedicated most of her effort, and she was once a student and professor and the University of Southern California. The purpose of this article is to explain the core principles of Ayres’ theory on sensory integration. This article includes advance vocabulary and concepts, so this piece of literature is intended for students, professors, and clinicians.
There are five common senses that are discussed and learned from an early age: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. The I-function, the conscious part of the brain, is very aware of these senses. It voluntarily checks information obtained by these senses in order to experience the environment, and also when a strong enough stimuli has signaled attention to these specific receptors. There are other equally important sensory systems set up that are essential for normal body functioning, but these are not so easily recognized by the I-function because the nervous system keeps the input unconscious.
The sensory stimuli: sight, sound, touch, smell and taste, can create a sexual response. Out of the five senses, I will be discussing how touch and hearing are tied to experiences of arousal and sexual response.
The brain is the most complex and mysterious asset to the human body. Information retrieved from the senses are processed by the brain “to create an internal representation of the external world”, which is crucial “for the survival and reproduction of the species” (Axel, 2004). If this brain interpretation were to be disrupted, daily activities and other simple tasks would be difficult to accomplish. Such lives are those who have sensory processing disorder. Sensory processing disorder, or SPD, is the “lack of ability to use information received by the senses in order to efficiently function in everyday life” (Borkowska, 2017). Those who have SPD can suffer from a multitude of symptoms, including “over sensitivity to stimulation”
The human body may not be equally receptive to touch, and sensitivity appears to vary from one part of the body to the other. The purpose of this lab is to determine which part of the body is the most sensitive in distinguishing separate pressure points. The skin which is thought to be more sensitive will recognize separate pressure points at a shorter distance. Skin unable to make out separate pressure points until a larger distance, is thought to be less sensitive. The sites of the body which will be tested are the face, back of neck, back of hand, palm of hand, and fingertip. If the fingertip is the most sensitive, then the fingertip will have the least two-point threshold. “Human fingers can identify textures whose ridges
Our sense of touch is controlled by a huge network of nerve endings and touch receptors in the skin known as the somatosensory system. This system is responsible for all the sensations we feel. Within the somatosensory system, there are four main types of receptors: mechanoreceptors, pain receptors, thermoreceptors, and proprioceptors. Mechanoreceptors decipher sensations such as pressure, vibrations, and texture. The thermoreceptors are responsible for perceiving the temperature of objects we touch. Pain receptors do exactly as they are named, they are responsible for detecting the feeling of pain. Finally, proprioceptors sense the position of the different parts of the body in relation to each other and the surrounding environment. When your hand touches an object, the mechanoreceptors in the skin are activated, and they start a chain of events by signaling to the nearest neuron that they touched something until the message reaches the brain, and causes a reaction (Pediaopolis
Then, the reaction times of the visual, auditory, and tactile responses were tested using two
In terms of neuropsychological evidence, there is also support for the visual sensory system’s dominance over the auditory, olfactory, and tactile sensory systems. While other senses rely on relatively more simple processes to maintain the quality of the sense, how humans have come to see,
In this experiment students will use a reaction time test to determine the delay between audial and visual stimuli being displayed and the student reacting. Once a large (N>>3) sample size is taken, statistical calculations can be made to determine the mean, and standard deviation; these calculations help us build a mathematical model that can then help predict the possibilities of data points lying on a number. This is if the recorded data is of a normal distribution and follows a Gaussian