PSY290H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Auditory Cortex, Ventral Cochlear Nucleus, Eustachian Tube
Document Summary
Each sensory system has receptors that are specialized to detect specific energies. Stimulus an event that can affect a sensory organ. Sensory receptors allow us to detect these energies by having specialized body parts that are sensitive to that energy. There are multiple forms of stimuli ranging from light entering the eye to sound waves reaching the ear. The sensory receptors detect stimuli and convert them to electrical signals so that the nervous system can understand them. These signals then enter the brain via millions of axons, in the form of action potentials, after which the brain makes sense of it. There are different types of sensory systems, each that detect certain kinds of stimuli. For any type of physical energy, sensory systems for each animal are selective and have a specific range of detection. For example, humans cannot detect ultrasonic sounds (which are sounds in the frequency range above 20,000 cycles per second).
