Sensation and Perception: Overlapping Processes

Overlapping processess:
Sensation is sometimes called "bottom-up" processing as we take information in from the senses up. Perception, sometimes called "top-down" processing is how the information is interpreted from the brain down. As we learned earlier, the primary job of our nervous system is to transmit information from one body part to another. Where does the information transmitted come from? The answer is our environment. Our senses act as a sort of gateway in which we process sensory information.

Each one of our senses has its own receptor cells, which have the job of transforming physical stimuli from the environment into neural impulses. Through sensation, we receive and represent stimuli from the environment. Through perception, we organize and interpret that sensory information into meaningful objects and ideas. Sensation is sometimes called "bottom-up" processing as we take information in from the senses up. The senses act as a gateway to which our brain receives information. In return, perception, sometimes called "top-down" processing, is how the information is interpreted from the brain down. Top-down processing is essential in how the brain actively organizes information.

Please take a moment to view the video on Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processing:

Transduction

For each of the senses, we learn about it will be important to understand how transduction takes place. Transduction is how sensory stimuli (light, sound, touch, etc.) are converted into neural impulses that our brains can understand. Again, each sense has receptors that convert different forms of physical energy into electrical impulses that are transmitted through neurons to the brain. Through transduction, the energy is converted to a coded neural signal that is processed through the nervous system. All sensory information, except for smell, passes through the thalamus en route to the appropriate part of the brain.

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