PSYC 3270 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Hypothalamus, Central Nervous System, Postcentral Gyrus

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3270
• Professor: Laurie Wilcox

Document Summary

Maps of the body on the cortex: thalamus, s1 (somatosensory receiving area) & s2 (secondary receiving area) in the parietal. Lobe: body map (homunculus) on the cortex in s1 & s2. More cortical space allocated to parts of the body that are responsible for. Plasticity in neural functioning multiple homunculi. Rapid vibration & fine texture by moving fingers. Minimum separation needed (between 2 points to perceive them as. Placing a grooved stimulus on the skin. C) raised pattern identification and asking the participant to indicate the orientation of the grating. Determine the smallest size that can be identified: tactile acuity. Fine details a high density in the fingertips (like fovea) Pacinian (pa2): fine texture with moving of the fingertips: cortical mechanism for tactile acuity. High acuity larger areas of cortical tissue (similar as the magnification factor in visual cortex; for the cones in the fovea) Areas with higher acuity have smaller receptive fields on the skin.