Interpretations: Relationship Between Sensation and Perception, The
Sensations, the raw data we encode from our physical environment, are just a random mix of sights and sounds, tastes and smells that provide little meaning in and of themselves. To construct the outside world inside our heads requires us to select, ...
Interpretations: Perceiving Three-Dimensional Figures: Binocular Depth Cues
The ability to see objects in three dimensions is the result of binocular depth cues. The fact that the images that strike the retina in each eye are slightly different allows our brain to merge these different inputs into a single three-dimensional...
Interpretations: Perceptual Constancy
The fact that we can glance at someone coming toward us and recognize them instantly as a friend regardless of angle, distance, or light conditions is a remarkable human capacity known as perceptual constancy. This flexibility enables us to take a p...
Interpretations: Form Clues: Grouping and Closure
To bring order and form to basic sensations, our minds follow certain rules for grouping stimuli-by proximity, by similarity, and by continuity. Even young children show an awareness of these rules of form. They know, for example, that two objects c...
Connections: Features Detected by Individual Neurons
In recent decades, researchers like David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel have been able to chart patterns of neural activity in relation to certain stimuli. Too often, however, research is focused on a single neuron rather than populations of neurons list...
Connections: Sensory Signals: Destination Cortex
The ultimate destination for sensory signals is the cerebral cortex. The cortex is a crumpled sheet, a few millimeters thick, wrapped around the exterior of the brain. In the primary visual cortex there is a hierarchy of processing with the represen...
Connections: Role of the Thalamas, The
Except for olfaction, input signals traveling along sensory pathways are routed through relay areas in the thalamus. Beyond serving as a way station, the role of the thalamus is a source of debate. Parts of the thalamus are thought to be involved in...