Sensation & Perception

Sensation & Perception, Fifth Edition introduces students to their own senses, emphasizing human sensory and perceptual experience and the basic neuroscientific underpinnings of that experience. The authors, specialists in their respective domains, strive to spread their enthusiasm for fundamental questions about the human senses and the impact that answers to those questions can have on medical and societal issues.

Jeremy M. Wolfe is Professor of Ophthalmology & Radiology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Wolfe was trained as a vision researcher/experimental psychologist and remains one today. His early work includes papers on binocular vision, adaptation, and accommodation. The bulk of his recent work has dealt with visual search and visual attention in the lab and in real world settings such as airport security and cancer screening. He taught Introductory Psychology for over twenty-five years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he won the Baker Memorial Prize for undergraduate teaching in 1989. He directs the Visual Attention Lab and the Center for Advanced Medical Imaging of Brigham & Women's Hospital.

Keith R. Kluender is Professor and Head of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and Professor of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University. His research encompasses: how people hear complex sounds such as speech; how experience shapes the way we hear; how what we hear guides our actions and communication; clinical problems of hearing impairment or language delay; and practical concerns about computer speech recognition and hearing aid design. Dr. Kluender is deeply committed to teaching, and has taught a wide array of courses--philosophical, psychological, and physiological.

Dennis M. Levi has taught at the University of California, Berkeley since 2001. He is Professor in the School of Optometry and Professor at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. In the lab, Dr. Levi and colleagues use psychophysics, computational modeling, and brain imaging (fMRI) to study the neural mechanisms of normal pattern vision in humans, and to learn how they are degraded by abnormal visual experience (amblyopia).

Linda M. Bartoshuk is Bushnell Professor, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Florida. Her research on taste has opened up broad new avenues for further study, establishing the impact of both genetic and pathological variation in taste on food preferences, diet, and health. She discovered that taste normally inhibits other oral sensations such that damage to taste leads to unexpected consequences like weight gain and intensified oral pain. Most recently, working with colleagues in Horticulture, her group found that a considerable amount of the sweetness in fruit is actually produced by interactions between taste and olfaction in the brain. This may lead to a new way to reduce sugar in foods and beverages.

Rachel S. Herz is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University and Part-time Faculty in the Psychology Department at Boston College. Her research focuses on a number of facets of olfactory cognition and perception and on emotion, memory, and motivated behavior. Using an experimental approach grounded in evolutionary theory and incorporating both cognitivebehavioral and neuropsychological techniques, Dr. Herz aims to understand how biological mechanisms and cognitive processes interact to influence perception, cognition, and behavior.

Roberta L. Klatzky is the Charles J. Queenan Jr. Professor of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, where she also holds faculty appointments in the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition and the HumanComputer Interaction Institute. She has done extensive research on haptic and visual object recognition, space perception and spatial thinking, and motor performance. Her work has application to haptic interfaces, navigation aids for the blind, image-guided surgery, teleoperation, and virtual environments.

Daniel M. Merfeld is Professor of Otolaryngology at the Ohio State University College of Medicine and the Senior Vestibular Scientist at the Naval Medical Research Unit in Dayton. Much of his research career has been spent studying how the brain combines information from multiple sources, with a specific focus on how the brain processes ambiguous sensory information from the vestibular system in the presence of noise. Translational work includes research developing new methods to help diagnose patients experiencing vestibular symptoms and research developing vestibular implants for patients who have severe problems with their vestibular labyrinth.

Preface

Chapter 1. Introduction
Welcome to Our World
Sensation and Perception
Thresholds and the Dawn of Psychophysics
Psychophysical Methods
Scaling Methods
Signal Detection Theory
Fourier Analysis
Sensory Neuroscience and the Biology of Perception
Neuronal Connections
Neural Firing: The Action Potential
Neuroimaging
Development over the Life Span
Summary

Chapter 2. The First Steps in Vision: From Light to Neural Signals
A Little Light Physics
Eyes That Capture Light
Focusing Light onto the Retina
The Retina
What the Doctor Saw
Retinal Geography and Function
Dark and Light Adaptation
Pupil Size
Photopigment Regeneration
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: When Good Retina Goes Bad
The Duplex Retina
Neural Circuitry
Retinal Information Processing
Light Transduction by Rod and Cone Photoreceptors
Lateral Inhibition through Horizontal and Amacrine Cells
Convergence and Divergence of Information via Bipolar Cells
Communicating to the Brain via Ganglion Cells
Box: Scientists at Work: Is One Photon Enough to See?
Summary

Chapter 3. Spatial Vision: From Spots to Stripes
Visual Acuity: Oh Say, Can You See?
A Visit to the Eye Doctor
More Types of Visual Acuity
Acuity for Low-Contrast Stripes
Why Sine Wave Gratings?
Retinal Ganglion Cells and Stripes
The Lateral Geniculate Nucleus
The Striate Cortex
The Topography of the Human Cortex
Some Perceptual Consequences of Cortical Magnification
Receptive Fields in Striate Cortex
Orientation Selectivity
Other Receptive-Field Properties
Simple and Complex Cells
Further Complications
Columns and Hypercolumns
Selective Adaptation: The Psychologist's Electrode
The Site of Selective Adaptation Effects
Spatial FrequencyTuned Pattern Analyzers in Human Vision
The Development of Vision
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: The Girl Who Almost Couldn't See Stripes
Development of the Contrast Sensitivity Function
Box: Scientists at Work: Does the Duck's Left Eye Know What the Right Eye Saw?
Summary

Chapter 4. Perceiving and Recognizing Objects
From Simple Lines and Edges to Properties of Objects
Box: Scientists at Work: Rüdiger von der Heydt, Border Ownership, and Transparency
What and Where Pathways
The Problems of Perceiving and Recognizing Objects
Mid-level Vision
Finding Edges
Texture Segmentation and Grouping
Figure and Ground
Dealing with Occlusion
Parts and Wholes
Summarizing Mid-level Vision
From Metaphor to Formal Model
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: Material Perception: The Everyday Problem of Knowing What It Is Made Of
Object Recognition
Multiple Recognition Committees?
Faces: An Illustrative Special Case
Summary

Chapter 5. The Perception of Color
Basic Principles of Color Perception
Three Steps to Color Perception
Step 1: Color Detection
Step 2: Color Discrimination
The Principle of Univariance
The Trichromatic Solution
Metamers
The History of Trichromatic Theory
A Brief Digression into Lights, Filters, and Finger Paints
From Retina to Brain: Repackaging the Information
Cone-Opponent Cells in the Retina and LGN
A Different Ganglion Cell Helps to Keep Track of Day and Night
Step 3: Color Appearance
Three Numbers, Many Colors
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: Picking Colors
The Limits of the Rainbow
Opponent Colors
Color in the Visual Cortex
Individual Differences in Color Perception
Language and Color
Genetic Differences in Color Vision
From the Color of Lights to a World of Color
Adaptation and Afterimages
Color Constancy
The Problem with the Illuminant
Physical Constraints Make Constancy Possible
What Is Color Vision Good For?
Box: Scientists at Work: Filtering Colors
Summary

Chapter 6. Space Perception and Binocular Vision
Monocular Cues to Three-Dimensional Space
Pictorial Depth Cues
Occlusion
Size and Position Cues
Aerial Perspective
Linear Perspective
Seeing Depth in Pictures
Triangulation Cues to Three-Dimensional Space
Motion Cues
Accommodation and Convergence
Binocular Vision and Stereopsis
Stereoscopes and Stereograms
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: Recovering Stereo Vision
Random Dot Stereograms
Using Stereopsis
Stereoscopic Correspondence
The Physiological Basis of Stereopsis and Depth Perception
Combining Depth Cues
The Bayesian Approach Revisited
Illusions and the Construction of Space
Binocular Rivalry and Suppression
Development of Binocular Vision and Stereopsis
Abnormal Visual Experience Can Disrupt Binocular Vision
Box: Scientists at Work: Stereopsis in a Hunting Insect
Summary

Chapter 7. Attention and Scene Perception
Selection in Space
The "Spotlight" of Attention
Visual Search
Feature Searches Are Efficient
Many Searches Are Inefficient
In Real-World Searches, Basic Features Guide Visual Search
In Real-World Searches, Properties of Scenes Guide Visual Search
The Binding Problem in Visual Search
Attending in Time: RSVP and the Attentional Blink
The Physiological Basis of Attention
Attention Could Enhance Neural Activity
Attention Could Enhance the Processing of a Specific Type of Stimulus
Attention and Single Cells
Attention May Change the Way Neurons Talk to Each Other
Disorders of Visual Attention
Neglect
Extinction
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: Selective Attention and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Perceiving and Understanding Scenes
Two Pathways to Scene Perception
The Nonselective Pathway Computes Ensemble Statistics
The Nonselective Pathway Computes Scene Gist and LayoutVery Quickly
Box: Scientists at Work: Do Ensembles Make Gists?
Memory for Objects and Scenes Is Amazingly Good
But, Memory for Objects and Scenes Can Be Amazingly Bad: Change Blindness
What Do We Actually See?
Summary

Chapter 8. Visual Motion Perception
Motion Aftereffects
Computation of Visual Motion
Apparent Motion
The Correspondence ProblemViewing through an Aperture
Detection of Global Motion in Area MT
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: The Man Who Couldn't See Motion
Second-Order Motion
Motion Induced Blindness (MIB)
Using Motion Information
Going with the Flow: Using Motion Information to Navigate
Avoiding Imminent Collision: The Tao of Tau
Something in the Way You Move: Using Motion Information to Identify Objects
Eye Movements
Physiology and Types of Eye Movements
Eye Movements and Reading
Saccadic Suppression and the Comparator
Updating the Neural Mechanisms for Eye Movement Compensation
Development of Motion Perception
Box: Scientists at Work: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Summary

Chapter 9. Hearing: Physiology and Psychoacoustics
The Function of Hearing
What Is Sound?
Basic Qualities of Sound Waves: Frequency and Amplitude
Sine Waves and Complex Sounds
Basic Structure of the Mammalian Auditory System
Outer Ear
Middle Ear
Inner Ear
The Auditory Nerve
Auditory Brain Structures
Basic Operating Characteristics of the Auditory System
Intensity and Loudness
Box: Scientists at Work: Why Don't Manatees Get Out of the Way When a Boat Is Coming?
Frequency and Pitch
Hearing Loss
Treating Hearing Loss
Using versus Detecting Sound
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: Electronic Ears
Summary

Chapter 10. Hearing in the Environment
Sound Localization
Interaural Time Difference
Interaural Level Difference
Cones of Confusion
Pinnae and Head Cues
Box: Scientists at Work: Vulcan Ears
Auditory Distance Perception
Spatial Hearing When Blind
Complex Sounds
Harmonics
Timbre
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: Auditory "Color" Constancy
Attack and Decay
Auditory Scene Analysis
Spatial, Spectral, and Temporal Segregation
Grouping by Timbre
Grouping by Onset
When Sounds Become Familiar
Continuity and Restoration Effects
Restoration of Complex Sounds
Auditory Attention
Summary

Chapter 11. Music and Speech Perception
Music
Musical Notes
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: Music and Emotion
Making Music
Speech
Speech Production
Speech Perception
Box: Scientists at Work: Tickling the Cochlea
Learning to Listen
Speech in the Brain
Summary


Chapter 12. Vestibular Sensation
Vestibular Contributions
Evolutionary Development and Vestibular Sensation
Modalities and Qualities of Spatial Orientation
Sensing Angular Motion, Linear Motion, and Tilt
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: The Vestibular System, Virtual Reality, and Motion Sickness
Basic Qualities of Spatial Orientation: Amplitude and Direction
The Vestibular Periphery
Hair Cells: Mechanical Transducers
Semicircular Canals
Otolith Organs
Spatial Orientation Perception
Rotation Perception
Translation Perception
Tilt Perception
Sensory Integration
Visual-Vestibular Integration
Active Sensing
Reflexive Vestibular Responses
Vestibulo-Ocular Responses
Vestibulo-Autonomic Responses
Vestibulo-Spinal Responses0
Spatial Orientation Cortex
Vestibular Thalamocortical Pathways
Cortical Influences
When the Vestibular System Goes Bad
Falls and Vestibular Function
Mal de Debarquement Syndrome
Ménière's Syndrome
Box: Scientists at Work: Vestibular Aging
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: Amusement Park RidesVestibular Physics Is Fun
Summary

Chapter 13. Touch
Touch Physiology
Touch Receptors
From Skin to Brain
Pain
Box: Scientists at Work: Tickling Rats
Tactile Sensitivity and Acuity
How Sensitive Are We to Mechanical Pressure?
How Finely Can We Resolve Spatial Details?
How Finely Can We Resolve Temporal Details?
Do People Differ in Tactile Sensitivity?
Haptic Perception
Perception for Action
Action for Perception
The What System of Touch: Perceiving Objects and Their Properties
The Where System of Touch: Locating Objects
Tactile Spatial Attention
Social Touch
Interactions between Touch and Other Modalities
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: Haptic Simulation for Surgical Training
Summary

Chapter 14. Olfaction
Olfactory Physiology
Odors and Odorants
The Human Olfactory Apparatus
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: Anosmia
Neurophysiology of Olfaction
The Genetic Basis of Olfactory Receptors
The Feel of Scent
From Chemicals to Smells
Theories of Olfactory Perception
The Importance of Patterns
Is Odor Perception Synthetic or Analytical?
The Power of Sniffing
Odor Imagery
Olfactory Psychophysics, Identification, and Adaptation
Detection, Discrimination, and Recognition
Psychophysical Methods for Detection and Discrimination
Identification
Individual Differences
Box: Scientists at Work: A New Test to Diagnose Parkinson's Disease
Adaptation
Cognitive Habituation
Olfactory Hedonics
Familiarity and Intensity
Nature or Nurture?
An Evolutionary Argument
Caveats
Associative Learning and Emotion: Neuroanatomical and Evolutionary Considerations
The Vomeronasal Organ, Human Pheromones, and Chemosignals
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: Odor-Evoked Memory and the Truth behind Aromatherapy
Summary

Chapter 15. Taste
Taste versus Flavor
Localizing Flavor Sensations
Box: Sensation & Perception in Everyday Life: Volatile-Enhanced Taste: A New Way to Safely Alter Flavors
Anatomy and Physiology of the Gustatory System
Taste Myth: The Tongue Map
Taste Buds and Taste Receptor Cells
Extraoral Locations for Taste Receptors
Taste Processing in the Central Nervous System
The Four Basic Tastes?
Salty
Sour
Bitter
Sweet
Are There More Than Four Basic Tastes? Does It Matter?
Umami
Fat
Genetic Variation in Bitter
Supertasters
Health Consequences of Variation in Taste Sensations
How Do Taste and Flavor Contribute to the Regulation of Nutrients?
Taste
Box: Scientists at Work: The Role of Food Preferences in Food Choices
Flavor
Is All Olfactory Affect Learned?
The Nature of Taste Qualities
Taste Adaptation and Cross-Adaptation
Pleasure and Retronasal versus Orthonasal Olfaction
The Pleasure of the Burn of Chili Peppers
Summary

Glossary
References
Photo Credits
Index