PSYC 271 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Cochlear Duct, Posterior Parietal Cortex, Secondary Somatosensory Cortex

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 271
• Professor: Richard Beninger

Document Summary

Hearing, touch, smell, taste, and attention: exteroceptive sensory systems: sensory systems that interpret stimuli from outside the body vision, hearing (audition), touch (somatosensory), smell (olfactory) and taste (gustatory). Hierarchical organization: hierarchical organization: sensory structures are organized in hierarchy based on specificity and complexity of their function. From receptors up to association cortex, neurons respond optimally to stimuli of greater specificity and complexity. Summary model of sensory system organization: used to be: hierarchical, functionally homogeneous, serial, now: hierarchical, but functionally segregated and parallel, multiple specialized areas, at multiple levels, are interconnected by multiple parallel pathways division of labour , e. g. Binding problem: perception is a product of combined activity of different interconnected cortical areas, not just down to up: many neurons descend through the hierarchy and carry top-down signals. 7. 2 the auditory system: auditory system perceives sound perception of objects and events through the sounds they make, sounds are vibrations of air molecules that stimulate the auditory system.