Sensory Adaptation

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses sensory adaption, in which the nerves begin to cease to send as much information to the brain after a prolonged exposure to stimuli.That paper points out that this occurs in all five senses of smell, taste, touch, hearing, and sight. The paper holds that adaptation is a normal part of sensation in the human body, with all sensing receptors of the body sending messages to the areas of the brain that process and deal with it, the occipital area and the thalamus. The paper concludes that, when the senses become overloaded, the sections of the brain, as well as the nerves, adapt to the increased intense stimuli by shutting it off to some extent, and in some cases altogether, until a change in sensation occurs.

From the Paper:

"The nose senses odors by picking up miniscule odor-bearing particles which are floating about in the air we are breathing. When these particles intercept the moist nerve endings in the interior of the nose, called the sensory receptor cells, there is a spike in the pattern of nerve impulses sent to the thalamus. The nerves may continue to send intense stimulation for a while, but eventually the perception of the intensity declines. This is neurologically explained by the adaptation phenomena. The nerve endings begin to adapt to the new odor and consider it normal, thus ceasing to send so much information about the foreign element in the air with a coordinating decline in the frequency of impulses. Within the brain, the thalamus ceases to respond to an intense pattern of stimulation, as well. Once the odor is gone (say, you walk out of a foul-smelling room), your nose tells you that there is a change once more, perhaps a more pleasant odor it detects (Typo 1)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Rodriguez, A. Whitson, J. And Granger, R. "Derivation and analysis of basic computational operations of thalamocortical circuits." Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. Vol 16(5).
• "Sensory and Perceptual Processes." University of Maine. Psychology Website: <http://www.umpi.maine.edu/~stump/perception.html>.
• Typo. "Sensory Adaptation." Everything Website. 2008. <http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1219651>.

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