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Module 1.6d

us an accurate experience of the world can, under certain conditions, fool us.
Understanding how we get fooled provides clues to how our perceptual
system works.
Your vestibular sense is super speedy. If you slip, your vestibular sen-
sors automatically and instantly order your skeletal response, well before
you have consciously decided how to right yourself. You might try this:
Hold one of your thumbs in front of your face, then move it rapidly right to
left and back. Notice how your thumb blurs (your vision isn’t fast enough
to track it). Now hold your thumb still and swivel your head from left to
right — just as fast. Voila! Your thumb stays clear — because your vestibular
system, which is monitoring your head position, speedily moves the eyes.
position and Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Not for redistribution.
Head moves right, eyes move left. Vision is fast, but the vestibular sense Tony Quinn/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
is faster.

* * *
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
For a summary of our sensory systems, see Table 1.6-3.
Body in space By using information from her inner ears,
this college cheerleader’s brain expertly monitors her body
position.

TABLE 1.6-3 Summarizing the Senses

Sensory System Source Receptors Key Brain Areas

Vision Light waves striking Rods and cones in the Occipital lobes
the eye retina
Hearing Sound waves striking Cochlear hair cells (cilia) in Temporal lobes
the outer ear the inner ear
Touch Pressure, warmth, Receptors (including pain- Somatosensory
cold, harmful sensitive nociceptors), cortex Touch
Taste
chemicals mostly in the skin, which
detect pressure, warmth, Hearing
cold, and pain Smell Vision
Taste Chemical molecules Basic taste receptors for Frontal/temporal
in the mouth sweet, sour, salty, bitter, lobe border
umami, and oleogustus

Smell Chemical molecules Millions of receptors at the Olfactory bulb
breathed in through top of the nasal cavities
the nose
Kinesthesis — Any change in Kinesthetic sensors in Cerebellum
position of a body the joints, tendons, and
movement part, interacting with muscles (proprioceptors)
vision

Vestibular Movement of fluids Hair-like receptors (cilia) Cerebellum
sense — balance in the inner ear in the ears’ semicircular
and movement caused by head/body canals and vestibular sacs
movement

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