Sensory System Processes

Let’s look more closely at the ideas of sensation and perception.  Each sensory system processes sensory system processes information about the environment and is sensitive to one or more forms of physical energy:

Light waves-visual system

Sound waves-auditory system

Vibrations and pressure-somatosensory system

Chemical substances-olfactory and gustatory system

All of these systems must contain: a mechanism of reception (how energy is absorbed-taken in) a process of transduction (the conversion of the physical energy into electrochemical firing pattern in the nervous system coding (the way the nervous system interprets the physical energy

For vision, light waves pass through the cornea, the pupil opens or closes to regulate the light coming in, and then the lens focuses the light on the retina at the back of the eye.  This is the process of reception.  Transduction then occurs in the retina, where the light waves are turned into nerves firing.  From there, the optic nerve takes the information to a part of the brain. Does anyone know where in the brain this goes? APA Format, 200-250 words, references.