Sound is caused by oscillation caused by a vibrating object

Physics of sound

How hearing functions in the ear

Vestibular perception allows humans to understand their body's position and movement in space, which is essential for balance. While this sensory information is typically processed without conscious awareness, its significance becomes evident during experiences like motion sickness or dizziness, which can arise from issues such as inner ear infections.

Vestibular perception

The vestibular system, with its major sensory organs in the inner ear (utricle, saccule, and semicircular canals), is crucial for maintaining balance. Beyond this, it also gathers essential information for controlling movement and triggering reflexes that adjust body parts in response to changes in position.

Vestibular system

Auditory signals 

Infants have diverse hearing capbilities in early life. If that hearing ability isn't used, for example if they have damage or deformity in their ears, their ability to distinguish or interpret sounds disappears. 

Musicians show higher sensitivity and activation to musical notes, with bigger differences in brain imaging if the musician was trained from an early age.

Plasticity, auditory perception and auditory pathways

- How hearing functions in the ear
- Auditory signals
- Hearing loss
- Vestibular perception
- Vestibular system

Grinnell College

Ohio State University, Columbus

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

- Sensory Processing, Touch, Pain
- Hearing, Vestibular Perception
- Taste
- Smell
- Vision
- Motor Control and Plasticity

Neuroscience of Perception and Action

Breedlove, S. & Watson, N. (2017). Behavioral neuroscience, eighth edition. Oxford University Press.

Behavioral Neuroscience 8th Edition

Sensory receptors such as eyes or taste buds develop differently in different species. Sensory processing refers to the ways the brain integrates information received from sensory receptors in order to process appropriate behavioral or cognitive response. 

- Sensory organs
- Stimuli
- Receptor Cells
- Touch and the skin
- Pain
- Sensory processing disorder
- Synesthesia

Sensory processing, touch and pain

Taste is a chemical sense

- The five basic tastes
- How taste functions

Taste

Chemicals in the air trigger odor sensation

- receptors in the nose
- transmission to brain regions
- anosmia

Smell

- Behavioral view of reflexes
- Control systems for accuracy vs speed
- Spinal cord's role in controling body movement
- Motor cortexes
- Extrapyramidal systems role in motor commands
- Brain disorders and motor impairments

Motor Control 

People's experience is shaped by the sensory experience, which relies on other senses to process information. This is crossmodality. The interactions between senses change how the other senses are processed. For example, the interactions of sight and somatosensation is proprioception. This is only true in sighted individuals, and blind individuals have different ways of proprioception. Plasticity of the brain allows crossmodality to be effective. 
Crossmodality can both enhance and hinder sensory expereinces and how people perceive the world.

Crossmodality of the senses

Hearing and Vestibular perception

People tend to use a high amount of visual information to inform their daily activities. There is also a lot of sensory information coming in through the eyes, which makes the visual system a highly researched field of neuroscience. 

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