Perception and Sensing of Our Everyday Environment - Research Paper Example

? Perception and Sensing of Our Everyday Environment Roni Sherman PSY 101 General Psychology April 18, Dr. Linda H. Bradford The ways an individual sees and experiences the world around them are based on several factors. Some factors root back to the actions of sensation and perception. Sensation and perception are largely intertwined with the neuroscience of how our body works. Our brain plays a big part in the reception and perception of our environment. There have been many misconceptions about the relation in regards to both sensation and perception. Many individuals mistake these two separate entities as one in the same. This paper will distinguish the difference between the two and provide clarity of each one’s function. This paper will also define how we as individuals acquire a cultural sense of sensation and perception through our experiences. This paper will define terms that will help you understand the history behind the functions of sensation and perception. The research in this paper will define abnormalities that can affect sensation and perception and the effects of those abnormalities as well as medical research and breakthroughs. Perception and Sensing of Our Everyday Environment Perception and Sensation though working together are different entities performing different functions. The functions performed by both perception and sensation are important to the interpretation of how we experience everyday life in the world around us. Sensation and perception are answerable to the brain. The brain is like a telephone pole and sensation and perception are some of the wires plugged into it to communicate. Perception and sensation to diffuse the confusion honed by most must be described and defined individually. Let’s begin by first defining sensation and describing sensations functions. Myers (2009) observes or defines sensation as the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. So what does this mean in laymen’s terms? Basically sensation is the signal we send to our brain that represents our physical experiences in this world we live in. Sensation receptors are recognized by the brain through receiving input up to the brain, which the brain interprets and sends out. There are several interpretation methods that we know as the senses. The five senses are vision, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling. These five senses are used on a daily basis and play very important roles in our everyday lives. Without the use of the five senses, the function of sensation would not exist in our world. Vision is the way we see and interpret the world around us. Vision occurs through the eyes. The eyes have several components that receive and send out light to form visual images. The eye contains several parts, the cornea, the iris, the pupil, the lens, the retina, the fovea, the rods and cones, and the optic nerve to name a few. For the sake of the length of research I will only cover a few parts to give the summarization of the eye’s function and how it transmits to the brain. The parts of the eye that will be discussed are the retina, the rods and the cones and the optic nerve. The “retina is the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information” (Myers, 2009) The “rods are the retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond” (Myers, 2009) The “cones are retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retinal that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. The cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations” (Myers, 2009) The “optic nerve is the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain” (Myers, 2009) So basically when putting all these functions together here is what happens. Once light enters the eye through the cornea, the retina processes the light through its receptors the rods and cones. The rods and cones together send neural impulses to the brain through the optic nerve, which the brain then translates and sends back to through the rods and cones, the retina and the cornea. This type of sensation known as vision is recognized and compiled through our experiences and what we have learned. The next sense to be covered is hearing. Hearing has no formal definition; instead to define hearing we use the word audition. According to Myers (2009) “audition is the sense or act of hearing.” The instrument used to hear is called the ear. The important components of the ear that will be covered are the outer ear, the middle ear, the inner ear, the cochlea, the auditory nerve. The outer ear is the part of the ear that we see the shape, the beginning entrance into the inner core of the ears structure. The outer ear is where sound waves first enter through to the brain. The middle ear “is the chamber between the eardrum and the cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window” (Myers, 2009) The inner ear “is the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals and vestibular sacs” (Myers, 2009) The cochlea is located in the inner ear and is used to process incoming vibrations. The auditory nerve is the way messages from the ear are sent to the brain. So in essence how we hear or audit the waves of sound are as follows; sound waves enter through the outer ear and travels through to the middle ear which then enters through the cochlea in the inner ear. The cochlea transmits the vibrations received to the auditory nerve. The auditory nerve transmits the signal through to the brain. The brain receives the information, processes it. The brain’s processing of the sound is how we interpret or distinguish different sounds. The sense of hearing is identified through recognition, adaptation and experiences. The sense of touch is a sensation that affects our entire body. Touch is the largest sense of the body. The other senses are limited to receive in one area only, whereas touch is received throughout our entire body. So in order to cover this large sense covering the basic terms necessary to experience touch are what will be covered here as well as the feeling of pain and what that means. To begin “our sense of touch is controlled by a huge network of nerve endings and touch receptors in the skin known as the somatosensory system; this system is responsible for all the sensations we feel” (Home Science Tools, 2011) The nerve signals are the connectors or carriers of these feeling or sensations to the brain. The touch receptors in the skin are composed of many parts, pain is what will be covered here. Pain is not a feeling one looks for or wishes upon oneself. The pain talked about here is one of physical pain. Pain “is the body’s way of telling you something has gone wrong” (Myers, 2009) There have been many studies that have come about to find ways to either block pain or control pain for a limited time. Pain has been accepted as a normal part of the body’s processes although some feel that pain should be addressed and taken more seriously. Not to underestimate the fact that pain is a normal part of the body’s processes through sensation, the underlying effects of pain could be detrimental in some cases. Therefore the addressing and treatment of pain should be looked closely into. Johnson (2008) observed according to some: Because pain has reached “epidemic” proportions among the elderly and can significantly worsen cognition and depression, it should be assessed and treated routinely as part of the psychiatric management of this population, said Dr. Karp, the medical director of geriatric psychiatry at one of the referral pain clinics at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Studies suggest that up to 50% of community-dwelling seniors experience pain that interferes with normal functioning, and up to 80% of nursing home patients live with undertreated pain-the source of which can be musculoskeletal, neuropathic, visceral, metabolic or other. Pain widely researched is debated among many. There are several who believe pain should be lived with because it’s the body’s natural temperature gaze of wrong and right happenings. There are those who believe pain should not be lived with but dealt with and managed. No matter what the belief is of pain we will experience it. Taste is the next sense. Taste is not a very complex sense. Taste involves receptors that are located on our tongue. The receptors are activated when a substance enters our mouth. Taste receptors reproduce very quickly, about every week or two to be exact (Myers, 2009) Taste is a sense that involves adaptability almost. In saying this I mean taste is acquired over time. Some sensations such as hot or cold or universal but individual likes and dislikes are acquired. At times a taste that may be acceptable at one time in life may be disgusted at another time, hence the reason for acquired taste over time. The next and last sense to be covered is smell. We experience smell through breathing in and out. Inside the naval cavity are millions of receptor cells that receive the odors in the air. The receptor cells in the nasal cavity are called olfactory receptor cells. When odor enters the nasal cavity the olfactory cells then activates the neurons which translate signals to the brain. The brain then interprets the signals, once interpreted we are able to distinguish different smells. The sense of smell is also a sense of adaptation. A sense developed and acquired through time in regards to likes and dislikes. Here I’ve talked about how the senses are supposed to work, but what happens if the senses don’t work, not functioning as they should. In the case of hearing loss there are several treatments to help restore or aid in hearing according to information gathered by Flynn (2007) Treatments for hearing loss: Conventional hearing aids the most common solution, aim to overcome the degree of conductive or sensorineural hearing loss by amplifying the incoming signal and sending the amplified sound via air conduction through to the cochlea. Candidates for conventional air conduction hearing aids include those with mild to severe sensorineural hearing loss, conductive and or mixed hearing loss. Cochlear implants are suitable for individuals with a severe or profound hearing loss, where the extent of destruction to the cochlea’s hair cells is so great that hearing aids are unable to provide benefit. In cochlear implants sound is picked up and processed by the sound processor and the cochlea is electrically stimulated, thus restoring the sensation of hearing. This process compensates for the destruction of the hair cells by routing the signal directly to the auditory nerve. Baha provides an optimal amplification choice for those with conductive, mixed, or single-sided sensorineural deafness through the use of direct bone conduction. The Baha consists of three parts, the ossiointegrated implant, the sound processor, and the abutment that connects the two. The directly to the skull through an osseointegrated titanium implant in the temporal bone. Sound vibrations are thereby passed through the titanium implant and vibrate the temporal bone that houses the cochlea, thereby providing the sensation of hearing. Bone conduction thereby overcomes conductive hearing loss by innervating the cochlea directly. It can also compensate for a degree of sensorineural hearing loss in a mixed hearing loss with increased amplification. Additionally, Baha provides a solution for individuals with single-sided sensorineural deafness, as the skull can efficiently conduct the sound from one side of the head to the opposite cochlea. Baha is a frequent choice for permanent conductive hearing loss. This is, in part, because conductive hearing loss is often concomitant with various outer- and middle-ear abnormalities (eg, atresia) or middle-ear pathologies (eg, continuously draining ear) that preclude hearing aid use. To clarify some of the terms used in describing abnormalities: atresia is the absence of the outer canal of the ear. The term draining ear is used to define an infection showing itself through the canal of the ear. The infection draining from the ear may not be isolated to the ear alone. The draining could occur from the nasal area or even sometimes the eye area. Our body is very complex and there are still studies and research going on to answer questions that arise. This is just a couple ways used to provide hearing in case of loss of hearing sensation. There are medical researchers providing breakthroughs every day. Many researchers are looking into trying to stop the spread of hearing loss in age groups younger than the elderly. More and more teenagers are being found to suffer hearing loss and many researchers have come up with reasons and ways to prevent hearing loss. The study of perception is not as complex as the study of sensation. Although perception can carry a lot of weight on how we view things perception’s process is pretty simple and not as exhausting. Perception has always been an interesting topic to me. The way one object can have differing perceptions by two individuals has always been a bit amazing to me. For instance colors, the way certain individuals perceive different shades of colors. Some individuals claim a certain type of grey is blue while others see it as what it is grey. In the differing of perceptions based on the colors who is to say whose perception is correct and whose perception is incorrect. How we as individuals perceive things in the world around us depends greatly on the influence of our environment as well as our senses. Perception “is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events” (Myers, 2009) So in essence as quoted in this definition perception is the channel sensory information travels through to be interpreted. When I think of perception I think of the way I see things or rather what a thing means to me. Depth perception “is the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two dimensional; allows us to judge distance” (Myers, 2009) There have been several studies on the perception of depth in regards to new discoveries and the correction of depth perception problems according to a report from Consumer Health News (English) (2010) A new study says a push-pull training method is a good way to correct a condition called sensory eye dominance, in which an imbalance between the vision strength of the eyes impairs fine depth perception. This method -- which involves making the weaker eye work while the stronger eye is suppressed -- could be especially important for people who depend on fine depth perception for their work, such as dentists, surgeons, machinists and athletes. It's also likely that the method can be adapted for treating children with amblyopia (also known as lazy eye), which affects 2 to 3 percent of children in the United States, said the authors of the study published in the Oct. 14 online edition of the journal Current Biology. "After a 10-day training period, we found our participants' sensory eye dominance is significantly reduced as the two eyes become more balanced. As a consequence, their depth perception also improves significantly," Teng Leng Ooi, of Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Salus University, said in a news release from the journal's publisher. Depth is just one area of perception listed here but there are many components to how we see and perceive our world around us. Another aspect of perception is how we adapt to perception. Perceptual adaptation involves the area “in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field” (Myers, 2009) An example of this can be looking through a magnifying glass, glasses, binoculars, a rearview mirror etc. Our adaptation to perception is one of visual focus. This perceptual adaptation goes back to the reinforcement of the senses and perception working together to not only envision and explore but to live the world around us. To find out more in-depth information on using your sensation and perception and the medical issues related, I encourage you to research medical journals involving neuroscience. References "Eye exercises might boost fine depth perception; push-pull training method could also be used for 'lazy eye,' researchers say.(Brief article)." Consumer Health News (English). HealthDay. 2010. Retrieved April 01, 2011 from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-239435324.html Flynn, Mark C.. "Overcoming conductive/mixed hearing losses and single-sided deafness.(tech topic)(Clinical report)." The Hearing Review. Ascend Media. 2007. Retrieved March 10, 2011 from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-167980242.html Johnson, Kate. "Pain Tx can improve cognition, lift depression: to get handle on extent of patients' pain, ask them direct questions and pay attention to nonverbal cues.(Geriatric Psychiatry)(Disease/Disorder overview)." Clinical Psychiatry News. International Medical News Group. 2008. Retrieved April 03, 2011 from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-178548855.html Home Science Tools: The Gateway to discovery (2011). Sense of Touch. Retrieved from http://www.hometrainingtools.com/skin-touch/a/1388 Myers, David G. (2009). Psychology in Everyday Life. New York, NY: Worth Publishers Read More