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Senses 1 Introduction The five senses are very important to the body and are controlled by the nervous system. This paper will take a look at the nervous system, the five senses, identifying the psychological theories, and analyze and illustrate the essentials understanding the normal and abnormal psychology of the senses. Without the five senses our lives would be in a state of chaos because they enable us to make memories and affect our behavior. The Nervous System The function of the nervous system is to receive sensory input from both internal and external environments, integrate the input and respond to the stimuli (UIC.edu, n.d). The sensory input comes from receptors in the nervous system that sense changes in the internal or external environments that can be in the forms of pressure, taste, sound, light, blood pH or even hormone levels and are converted to a signal and sent to the brain or spinal cord (UIC.edu, n.d). In the sensory centers of the brain or spinal cord, the barrage of input is integrated and a response is generated which is a motor output. This means that the signal of motor output is transmitted to the organ or organs of the body that convert the signal into action, such as movement (UIC.edu, n.d). The nervous system is divided into two parts, the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). The CNS consists of the brain and spinal cord while the PNS connects the CNS to the other parts of the body and is composed of bundles of neurons otherwise know as nerves. The PNS contain sensory nerves that run from stimulus receptors that inform the CNS of stimuli and motor neurons that run from the CNS to the muscles and glands that take
Sense 2 action, otherwise known as effectors. The somatic division of the PNS controls the skeletal Muscles and the autonomic division controls internal processes such as digestion and heart rate. The autonomic division is further divided into the parasympathetic nervous system which controls rest and digestion and the sympathetic nervous system that controls the flight or fight responses. Within the PNS the neuron is the functional unit and has three parts. Dendrites receive information from another cell and transmit the message to the cell body. The cell body contains the nucleus, mitochondria and other organelles which uses the axon to conduct the messages away from the cell body to CNS. Neurotransmitters located at the tip of the axons are stored in small synaptic vesicles in clusters. When the axon conducts the messages away from the cell body it does so through the neurotransmitters to cross the synaptic cleft which causes a junction between nerve cells and another cell called the synapse (UIC.edu. n.d). Now that we have gotten the basic idea as to how the sensory organs messages are transmitted we can now pursue the sensory organs themselves. The Senses Senses are thought to be the physiological methods of perception (Gold, n.d). Perception is the sorting out, interpretation, analysis, and an integration of stimuli by the sense organs of the brain, while stimuli are energies that produce a response in the sense organ, and sensation is the activation of the sense organs by a source of physical energy (Feldman, 2011). The senses are studied by various fields such as: neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and philosophy of perception (Gold, n.d). The nervous system has a sensory organ for each sense.
Senses 3 The Eye The eye, for example, is the sensory organ for vision. It contains a transparent lens that focuses light on the retina which contains rods and cones that are light sensitive. The cones are sensitive to color and located in the fovea while the rods have a greater sensitivity to light and are located around the fovea. The eye is connected to the brain via the optic nerve and the point of connection is called the blind spot (Gold, n.d). It has been shown through experimentation that the back of the brain actually maps the visual input from the eyes (Gold, n.d). The brain then uses the input from both the left and right eye to create a single, three-dimensional image. In the dark, the eye is able to produce a substance through the rod cells so that it increases its sensitivity to the very dimmest of lights. In the brightest of lights, the iris of the eye will contract to reduce the amount of light entering the eye. Ultimately, what we see affects our response to images produced by the amount of light we are exposed to whether it be day or night. This explains why people shriek in fright when the lights suddenly go off. It causes a moment of complete blindness until the eyes are able to adjust to the immediate darkness. Once the eyes adjust, they are able to recognize the shapes of objects around them to maneuver to find a flashlight or candle to light. There are some theories that are relevant to the eye as a sense organ. The first is the trichromatic theory of color vision and it suggests that there are three types of cones in the retina that respond primarily to specific wave lengths (Feldman, 2011). One is responsive to blueviolet, one to green and the last to red yellow and if the eye is functioning normally, an
individual can distinguish between no less than 7 million different colors (Feldman, 2011). However, in this case if one cone has loss the sensitivity in one or more of the cones he may experience color blindness, meaning they see red and green objects as yellow, or they may be unable to tell the difference between yellow and blue when faced with yellow-blue blindness (Feldman, 2011). Another theory called opponent-process theory of color of vision believes that receptors cells are linked in pairs and gives a good explanation for afterimages concerning the complimentary and primary colors (Feldman, 2011). In this case if a person of normal vision, were to stare at a yellow figure for a certain length of time he would see the color purple, blue he would see orange, red he would see green, and white he would see black and vice versa. For those with color blindness the colors would not compliment the one another, they would appear the same in some instances and or all the same in other instances. For those with complete blindness there would be nothing. The Ear The human ear is also important to the five senses and to the human world as we know it, and can perceive frequencies from 16 cycles to 28,000 cycles per second (Gold, n.d). In the dead of night when one is a lone he can hear all sorts of noises. Those noises can drive the mind to wonder and drive the individual into state of fright. What the eye cannot see the ears make up for and tend to create illusions in the mind. Once the illusions are created it can cause hysteria and the human being will end up in a state of panic and his behavior will show that of fear. He will scream in fear and quite possibly run away from what they are so afraid of in the darkness.
Senses 5 But that also explains why there are those who do not fear the darkness, rather they embrace it. In fact they close their eyes and imagine what makes the sound so they do not fear what it is. Hearing also explains why people behave the way they do during a bar room brawl. The irony is they more they hear the crowd chant and support the fight the more chances of the fight continuing until the fight is broken up. This explains why Tina Hatton, a small child, ran behind her daddys leg after hearing a loud explosion of thunder, screaming and crying for help. There are some theories concerning hearing as well. The place theory of hearing suggests that there are different areas of the basilar membrane that respond to different frequencies (Feldman, 2011). The part of the of the basilar membrane nearest to the oval window is most sensitive to high-frequency sounds, while the part near the cochleas inner end is most sensitive to the low-frequency sounds (Feldman, 2011). The frequency theory of hearing suggests that the entire basilar membrane works like a microphone, and vibrates as a whole in response to sound. In this explanation, the nerve receptors send out signals that are tied directly to the frequency of sounds that we are exposed to with the number of impulses being a direct function of a sounds frequency (Feldman, 2011). The higher the pitch of a sound means the greater the number of impulses that are transmitted to the brain via the auditory nerve (Feldman, 2011). It is believed that the right ear reacts more to speech, while the left ear responds more so to music (Feldman, 2011). The absolute lowest sound a human of normal hearing can hear on the lowest frequency is 20 cycles per second, while the highest sound that can be heard is as high as 20,000 cycles per second. When a human is exposed to 120 decibels of sound it becomes
Senses 6 painful to the ear, and if exposed for long periods of time can cause hearing loss and even deafness with age. This is why manufacturing companies are forced by OSHA to provide their employees to wear hearing protection, and why it is important to use earplugs when using things like chainsaws, weed eaters, and lawn mowers. The Nose The nose is responsible for the sense of smell and it contains mucous membranes that have smell receptors that connect to the olfactory nerve (Gold, n.d). This also affects a persons behavior. It allows someone to hunger for the most exquisite food and immediately look for the restaurant that has prepared it. It also explains why the stench of a dead body will make and individual vomit. Yet when an individual has a cold he loses that sense and finds food unappealing and lacks the desire to eat because the scent of the food tells the brain how the food should taste. The normal sense of smell allows humans to detect more than 10,000 separate smells and the smell receptors are sensitive to seven types of sensations that are characterized as camphor, musk, flower, mint, either, acrid, or putrid (Feldman, 2011 & Gold, n.d). Those with sinusitis, an inflammation or infection of the air pockets on either side of or behind the nose, caused by viruses, fungi and allergies may cause the nose and sense of smell to function abnormally (R. Gold, n.d). The Sense of Taste
Senses 7 The sense of taste involves receptor cells that respond to four basic stimulus qualities: bitter, sour, salty and sweet, and are called taste buds chiefly located in the tongue, but are also located in the roof of the mouth and near the pharynx (Feldman, 2011). The tongue is also able to detect a sensation called umami from taste receptors sensitive to amino acids (Gold, 2011). There are about 10,000 taste buds located on the tongue and other parts of the mouth and throat and they replace about every 10 or so days (Feldman, 2011). The sense of taste explains combined with the sense of smell explain why some people tend to over eat. The aromas and actual taste of the food make it near impossible to stop eating and this behavior causes those people to become overweight and have heart and cholesterol problems. It explains why Brittani Hatton learned to love sweets the first time she was given mashed up cookies as a baby and would cry for more when they were all gone. Because the tongue replaces taste buds every 10 or so days, those who accidentally burn their tongues are able to continue to taste and continue to function normally. There are disorders like, lumps or ulcers that can cause tumors if not treated and are caused by papillae disorder (Gold, n.d). Glossitis and geographical tongue are also caused by papillae disorder and are a result of bacterial build-up that leads to a fungal infection and a dark-colored tongue as a result of inflammation (Gold, n.d). As a result of these problems ones taste may not function as it normally would. The Touch The sense of touch is in located in every part of the body through nerve endings in the skin and other parts of the body send this information of sensation to the brain (R. Gold, n.d).
Senses 8 There are some parts of the body that have more nerve endings than others meaning that they are more sensitive. Cold, heat, contact and pain are the four kinds of touch and hairs on the skin magnify sensitivity and act as an early warning system for the body (R. Gold, n.d). Areas like the fingertips and the sexual organs have more nerve endings than any other part of the body making them more sensitive in touch. The hair on the body explains why Tina Hatton can feel something as tiny as a gnat crawling on her. It also explains why the singed eyebrows and arm hair of Phillip Hatton II aided him in thinking he was on fire after lighting a 16 foot tall bonfire after pouring gasoline on it and it exploded, causing him to run 50 yards yelling Drop and Roll, Drop and Roll, for the whole distance without ever dropping and rolling. This also explains why he responded so melodramatically to his wife when she was laughing hysterically at the spectacle he was making of himself. The sensitivity in the finger tips explain why a child will touch an ice cube for the first time and understand the meaning of cold, and why Tina Hatton learned what hot and pain meant after she touched an iron that her mother was using after she was told not to do so. Rather than
crying out, Tina ran and hid in the closet sucking on her finger to prevent her mom from knowing what she had done. Needless to say she never did it intentionally again. The gate-control theory explains that a particular nerve receptors in the spinal cord lead to specific areas of the brain related to pain (Feldman, 2011). This simply means if the body is caused injury or experiencing problems with other parts of the body a so called gate is opened via the brain so that we may experience pain (Feldman, 2011). It is believed that psychological
Senses 9 factors may cause this gate to close, how cultures may differ in their experience of pain, and why the technique of acupuncture works in alleviating pain (Feldman, 2011). There are three main disorders associated with touch and one is attention deficit disorder that can occur in people of all ages and has been associated with making the sense of touch more sensitive that the norm of others because the brain is not filtering information properly (Gold, n.d). Tactile defensiveness can affect all ages as well and those with it have a negative reaction to touch that can lead to anxiety or panic attacks (Gold, n.d). Last, sensory intergrative dysfunction usually occurs in children causing them to be uneasy, have poor balance and have under or over sensitivity to touch due to a dysfunction in the central nervous system (Gold, n.d). Conclusion The five senses are very important to the body and are controlled by the nervous system. This paper has taken a look at the nervous system, the five senses, identified the psychological theories, and analyzed and illustrated the essentials understanding the normal and abnormal psychology of the senses. Without the five senses our lives would be in a state of chaos because they enable us to make memories and affect our behavior.
References Feldman, R. S. (2011). Understanding Psychology. New York, NY; The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Gold, R. (n.d). The five senses. Retrieved June 2, 2011 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/12944581/The-Five-Senses#archive. UIC.edu. (n.d). The body. Retrieved June 2, 2011 from http://www.uic.edu/classes/bios/bios100/lectures/nervous.htm.