Sensory Perception: Organs & Process

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Arpita Srivastava

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Sensory Perception is a process in which an individual recognizes the happenings around him/her with the help of sense organs. The brain and the sense organs are interlinked with each other to give a better understanding of the world. 

  • Sensory Perception is interpretation of information to understand about the surroundings.
  • The organs in the human body which possess the senses are eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. 
  • The process is held in four different stages, which are detecting, recognizing, characterization and responding. 
  • If the process is disturbed, then the human body behaves a bit differently in conditions than the ordinary response.
  • Sensory Perception involves the processing of stimuli in coordination with the brain.
  • The perception tends to get weaker with age.

Read More: Stereoscopic Vision

Key Terms: Sensory Perception, Organs, Perception, Detecting, Characterization, Recognizing, Responding, Stimuli, Perception, Neuron


Sensory Perception Organs

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Sensory Perception Organs are the parts of the body which are helpful to feel or sense the disturbance in the environment. They have a sense neuron, which, along with the brain, performs the process of sensory perception. 

  • There are five sense organs in a body, which are eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. 
  • Each sense organ has its own sense receptors specialized for detecting the change. 
  • It helps us gain a better understanding of the world.
  • The sensory perception organs are processing the stimuli in their environment.
  • For example, the eyes have a photoreceptor to detect electromagnetic radiation, which is later converted to an image.

Sensory Perception

Sensory Perception


Sensory Perception Process

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The sensory perception process is divided into four categories, which are as follows:

Detecting

When a stimulus (a body that causes a detectable change) comes into the surroundings of the sense organs, it causes a change or vibration in the human body. It is detected by neurons in sense organs. 

  • For example, light or electromagnetic radiation travels to the retina, where the photoreceptors are present.
  • It causes changes in photosensitive cells that are detected by the receptors. 
  • The eye is the sense organ which works as a detector for sight or vision. 
  • Hence, detection is the foremost step in the process of sensory perception.

Read More: Human Eye

Characterization

Characterization is the next step of the sensory perception process. After detecting a vibration, the change is characterized so that the specific sense neurons work on it.

  • A detected change is simplified into five different categories.
  • These categories are named as touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste
  • For example, the vibration that results in the movement of tiny hair fibres in the inner ear will be categorized as hearing.

Recognizing

The third step is to recognize the happening in the surroundings. In this step, the sense organ sends translation of the vibration in terms of signal through nerves to the brain. 

  • The coordination between the sense organ and brain helps to recognize the stimuli and change that occurred. 
  • For example, consider the example of electromotive radiations.
  • In this, the electrical signals travel from the retina via optic nerves to the brain.
  • This later recognizes the signals and forms an image of the environment.

Read More: Hypermetropia

Responding

The final step in the process of the sensory reception is to respond back with the appropriate reply to the occurrence. The brain takes action by interrogating the change and then sends back the signals to a specific sense organ to respond or react accordingly as per the conditions. 

  • For example, if our hand touches a hot object, then thermal receptors are activated.
  • It then sends the signal to the brain, which responds back to remove the hand from the hot surface.

Sensory Perception

Read More: Tyndall Effect


Things to Remember

  • Sensory Perception is a process by which an individual performs neurophysiologic processes.
  • Each sense organ has its own sense neurons to perform specific tasks.
  • Brain and sense organs work simultaneously in the sensory perception process.
  • Each step has its own importance; if one is skipped, then the process is disturbed.
  • The stimuli used in processing include mechanical, chemical, temperature or electrical signals.
  • Sensory Perception is shaped by the recipient's learning, memory, and attention.

Read More: Control and Coordination in Humans


Sample Questions

Ques. What are the five sensory perceptions? (2 Marks)

Ans. Sensory Perception is a type of perception where individuals process the stimuli in the environement to perceive the information. A human body have five sensory perception and are name below with their respective sense organs:

  • Hearing – Ears
  • Sight/Vision-Eyes
  • Touch-Skin
  • Taste-Tongue
  • Smell-Nose

Ques. What is the basic feature of the sense organs? (2 Marks)

Ans. The basic feature of the sense organ is that all of them have their specific receptor cells which are sensitive categorized to one category only. For example, Photoreceptor is used by the eyes to catch light which forms an image in an individual's mind. and nociceptor is used for painful stimuli.

Ques. What can affect sensory reception? (2 Marks)

Ans. Sensory reception is deeply affected with respect to the age of the individual such as hearing power of aged people is low as compared with that of younger generation. Long time health problems can also weaken the sense organs like diabetes which result in slowing down the process of sensory reception.

Ques. What does sensory reception require? (2 Marks)

Ans. The human body can recognize what is happening about it with the help of sense organs and brain interconnection. Sensory reception consists of four steps which are detecting, characterization, recognizing and responding.

Ques. How do your senses affect our behaviour? (2 Marks)

Ans. Our behaviour is the reflection of our internal and external reaction to the changes occurring. So, our senses along with the brain interpret the situation and respond back to the environment which is later considered our behaviour and attitude to solve the problem or situation by others.

Ques. What is the difference between sensation and perception? (4 Marks)

Ans. The difference between sensation and perception are as follows:

Sensation Perception
When a human body detects the change in the surrounding, it is called sensation. Perception is the process in which brain and sense organs both interlinked to recognize the happening in the surrounding and respond back with the appropriate response.
It is the first stage of information processing. It is the second stage of information processing.
Sensation does not requires conscious and awareness. Perception require conscious and awareness.
It is the base of perception. It leads to the formation of experiences.

Ques. What results in misconnection between the brain and sense organs? (3 Marks)

Ans. Brain and sense organs work together to interpret the signal. If some misconnection happens then it results in the slow response to the situation or not replying back at all or inappropriate reply to the occurrence which is the sign for the health issues of the individual. The inability of performing sensory perception properly due to imbalance between the brain and sense organs is known as “Disturbed Sensory Perception”.

Ques. How is sensory perception connected to daily life? (2 Marks)

Ans. Sensory perception reflects all the things happening around us like things we see or touch which is the basis of our internal environment i.e. our emotions or feeling toward the object. Our life is built upon our thoughts and emotions which is a result of sensory perception. Therefore, our daily life is all about our power and strength of sense organs.

Ques. Give examples for sensory perception? (3 marks)

Ans.The various examples of sensory perception are as follows:

  • Dog sense of smell is due to the presence of large nasal passages that are covered by olfactory receptors.
  • When a ray of light falls on the surface, it is reflected by the surface and creates a simulation in our eyes.
  • Holding a cup of hot beverage will send a signal of warmth to an individual, which is stimulated by the senses.

Ques. What is the difference between mechanical stimulus and chemical stimulus? (3 marks)

Ans. The difference between mechanical stimulus and chemical stimulus are as follows:

Mechanical Stimulus Chemical Stimulus
Mechanical Stimulus is defined as a type of physical change in the body. Chemical Stimulus is defined as the change in the smell or taste receptors.
It includes change in pressure and change in the object. It includes coming in contact with an electrlotyes and molecules.
For example bone is affected by heavy form of lifting. For example ants get warned in presence of formic acid.

Ques. What are the things that affect the sense of perception? (2 marks)

Ans. The things that affect the sense of perception are as follows:

  • Emotions
  • Interest
  • Biases
  • Motivation
  • Background Experiences
  • Expectations
  • Cultural Perceptions 

Ques. What are the three steps involved in sensory perception? (3 marks)

Ans.The three steps involved in sensory perception are as follows:

  • The sensory information activates the human receptors.
  • Brain is responsible for translating sensory information into sensations.
  • Some common sensation includes temperature and taste.
  • The centre part of the brain would identify the useful sensation.
  • It would reject the unnecessary sensation.

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