Sensation, Attention and Perception

In Psychology, sensation and perception are stages of processing of the senses in human

and animal systems, such as vision, auditory, vestibular, and pain senses.
Sensation is the function of the low-level biochemical and neurological events that begin
with the impinging of a stimulus upon the receptor cells of a sensory organ. It is the detection of
the elementary properties of a stimulus.
Perception is the mental process or state that is reflected in statements like "I see a
uniformly blue wall", representing awareness or understanding of the real-world cause of the
sensory input. The goal of sensation is detection, the goal of perception is to create useful
information of the surroundings.
In other words, sensations are the first stages in the functioning of senses to represent
stimuli from the environment, and perception is a higher brain function about interpreting events
and objects in the world. Stimuli from the environment are transformed into neural signals,
which are then interpreted by the brain, through a process called transduction. Transduction is
the physical process of converting stimuli into biological signals that may further influence the
internal state of the organism, including the possible production of conscious awareness or
perception.
A sense is a physiological capacity of organisms that provides data for perception. The
senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety
of fields, most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology (or cognitive science),
and philosophy of perception. The nervous system has a specific sensory system or organ,
dedicated to each sense.
Humans have a multitude of senses. Sight (ophthalmoception), hearing (audioception), taste
(gustaoception), smell (olfacoception or olfacception), and touch (tactioception) are the five
traditionally recognized senses. The ability to detect other stimuli beyond those governed by
these most broadly recognized senses also exists, and these sensory modalities include
temperature (thermoception), kinesthetic sense (proprioception), pain (nociception), balance
(equilibrioception), vibration (mechanoreception), and various internal stimuli (e.g. the
different chemoreceptors for detecting salt and carbon dioxide concentrations in the blood).
However, what constitutes a sense is a matter of some debate, leading to difficulties in defining
what exactly a distinct sense is, and where the borders between responses to related stimuli lay.
Sight.
The eye is the organ of vision. It has a complex structure consisting of a transparent lens that
focuses light on the retina. The retina is covered with two basic types of light-sensitive cells-rods
and cones. The cone cells are sensitive to color and are located in the part of the retina called the
fovea, where the light is focused by the lens. The rod cells are not sensitive to color, but have
greater sensitivity to light than the cone cells. These cells are located around the fovea and are
responsible for peripheral vision and night vision. The eye is connected to the brain through the
optic nerve. The point of this connection is called the "blind spot" because it is insensitive to
light. Experiments have shown that the back of the brain maps the visual input from the eyes.
The brain combines the input of our two eyes into a single three-dimensional image. In addition,
even though the image on the retina is upside-down because of the focusing action of the lens,
the brain compensates and provides the right-side-up perception. Experiments have been done
with subjects fitted with prisms that invert the images. The subjects go through an initial period
of great confusion, but subsequently they perceive the images as right side up.
The range of perception of the eye is phenomenal. In the dark, a substance produced by the rod
cells increases the sensitivity of the eye so that it is possible to detect very dim light. In strong
light, the iris contracts reducing the size of the aperture that admits light into the eye and a
protective obscure substance reduces the exposure of the light-sensitive cells. The spectrum of
light to which the eye is sensitive varies from the red to the violet. Lower electromagnetic
frequencies in the infrared are sensed as heat, but cannot be seen. Higher frequencies in the
ultraviolet and beyond cannot be seen either, but can be sensed as tingling of the skin or eyes
depending on the frequency. The human eye is not sensitive to the polarization of light, i.e., light
that oscillates on a specific plane. Bees, on the other hand, are sensitive to polarized light, and
have a visual range that extends into the ultraviolet. Some kinds of snakes have special infrared
sensors that enable them to hunt in absolute darkness using only the heat emitted by their prey.
Birds have a higher density of light-sensing cells than humans do in their retinas, and therefore,
higher visual acuity.
Hearing.
The ear is the organ of hearing. The outer ear protrudes away from the head and is shaped like a
cup to direct sounds toward the tympanic membrane, which transmits vibrations to the inner ear
through a series of small bones in the middle ear called the malleus, incus and stapes. The inner
ear, or cochlea, is a spiral-shaped chamber covered internally by nerve fibers that react to the
vibrations and transmit impulses to the brain via the auditory nerve. The brain combines the
input of our two ears to determine the direction and distance of sounds.
The inner ear has a vestibular system formed by three semicircular canals that are approximately
at right angles to each other and which are responsible for the sense of balance and spatial
orientation. The inner ear has chambers filled with a viscous fluid and small particles (otoliths)
containing calcium carbonate. The movement of these particles over small hair cells in the inner
ear sends signals to the brain that are interpreted as motion and acceleration.
The human ear can perceive frequencies from 16 cycles per second, which is a very deep bass, to
28,000 cycles per second, which is a very high pitch. Bats and dolphins can detect frequencies
higher than 100,000 cycles per second. The human ear can detect pitch changes as small as 3
hundredths of one percent of the original frequency in some frequency ranges. Some people have
"perfect pitch", which is the ability to map a tone precisely on the musical scale without
reference to an external standard. It is estimated that less than one in ten thousand people have
perfect pitch, but speakers of tonal languages like Vietnamese and Mandarin show remarkably
precise absolute pitch in reading out lists of words because pitch is an essential feature in
conveying the meaning of words in tone languages. The Eguchi Method teaches perfect pitch to
children starting before they are 4 years old. After age 7, the ability to recognize notes does not
improve much.
Taste.
The receptors for taste, called taste buds, are situated chiefly in the tongue, but they are also
located in the roof of the mouth and near the pharynx. They are able to detect four basic tastes:
salty, sweet, bitter, and sour. The tongue also can detect a sensation called "umami" from taste
receptors sensitive to amino acids. Generally, the taste buds close to the tip of the tongue are
sensitive to sweet tastes, whereas those in the back of the tongue are sensitive to bitter tastes. The
taste buds on top and on the side of the tongue are sensitive to salty and sour tastes. At the base
of each taste bud there is a nerve that sends the sensations to the brain. The sense of taste
functions in coordination with the sense of smell. The number of taste buds varies substantially
from individual to individual, but greater numbers increase sensitivity. Women, in general, have
a greater number of taste buds than men. As in the case of color blindness, some people are
insensitive to some tastes.

Smell.
The nose is the organ responsible for the sense of smell. The cavity of the nose is lined with
mucous membranes that have smell receptors connected to the olfactory nerve. The smells
themselves consist of vapors of various substances. The smell receptors interact with the
molecules of these vapors and transmit the sensations to the brain. The nose also has a structure
called the vomeronasal organ whose function has not been determined, but which is suspected of
being sensitive to pheromones that influence the reproductive cycle. The smell receptors are
sensitive to seven types of sensations that can be characterized as camphor, musk, flower, mint,
ether, acrid, or putrid. The sense of smell is sometimes temporarily lost when a person has a
cold. Dogs have a sense of smell that is many times more sensitive than man's.
Touch.
The sense of touch is distributed throughout the body. Nerve endings in the skin and other parts
of the body transmit sensations to the brain. Some parts of the body have a larger number of
nerve endings and, therefore, are more sensitive. Four kinds of touch sensations can be
identified: cold, heat, contact, and pain. Hairs on the skin magnify the sensitivity and act as an
early warning system for the body. The fingertips and the sexual organs have the greatest
concentration of nerve endings. The sexual organs have "erogenous zones" that when stimulated
start a series of endocrine reactions and motor responses resulting in orgasm.