Sensation and Perception Essays

Sensation and Perception Essays Sensation and Perception Essay Sensation and Perception Essay Sensation is a process by which we detect physical energy from the environment and encode it as neuron signals.   Perception is the process by which we select, organize, and interpret our sensations.   Sensory adaptation occurs when our sensitivity is diminished due to unchanging stimulus; in other words, after constant exposure to a stimulus, our nerve cells fire less frequently (we â€Å"feel it† less, it becomes almost unnoticeable).   Even though sensory adaptation reduces our sensitivity, it enables us to focus our attention on informative changes in our environment, without being distracted by the uninformative constant stimuli we are bombarded with (like the feel of our clothing, or the sound of street noise).Pain is your body’s way of telling you that   something has gone wrong.   It is not just a matter of sensing, but is also a property of the brain.   However, the pain system is not located in any one simple neural cord connected to a specific par t of the brain.   There is no one type of stimulus that triggers pain, and there are no specific receptors for pain.   At low intensities, the stimuli that cause pain can also cause other sensations, such as warmth or coolness.There is no one pain theory that explains all findings, but there are some useful theories that try to offer explanations.   The gate-control theory proposes that the spinal cord contains a neurological â€Å"gate† that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain.   The â€Å"gate† is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain.   In the cultural differences in pain theory, different cultures understand pain differently and place different significance on certain sensations.   One culture’s severe pain might be another’s minor ache, something that is just accepted as the way it is and thus needs to be dealt with, not allowing it to become a primary point of focus.