Sensation

Sensation involves the relay of information from sensory receptors to the brain and
enables a person to experience the world around them. Sensation is input about the physical
world registered by our sensory receptors, such as our eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and skin.

Perception
Perception is the process by which the brain selects, organizes, and interprets sensations;
it is often influenced by learning, memory, emotions, and expectations. Input from our senses is
taken in through the body’s sensory receptors, which then convert the input energy into neural
impulses. These neural impulses enter the cerebral cortex of the brain, where they are interpreted
and organized in the process of perception.
Sensation and perception are two separate processes that are very closely related. Sensation is
in-put about the physical world obtained by our sensory receptors, and perception is the process
by which the brain selects, organizes, and interprets these sensations. In other words, senses are
the physiological basis of perception. Perception of the same senses may vary from one person to
another because each person’s brain interprets stimuli differently based on that individual’s
learning, memory, emotions, and expectations.
Disorders of Sensation
Disorders of the special senses (i.e., vision; hearing; taste; and smell) or somatosensory
system

 Hearing Disorders.
 Olfaction Disorders.
 Somatosensory Disorders.
 Taste Disorders.
 Vision Disorders.

Disorders of sensation of touch

Hemianopsia
Hemianopsia, or hemianopia, is a loss of vision or blindness (anopsia) in half the visual
field, usually on one side of the vertical midline. The word hemianopsia is from Greek origins,
where:

 hemi means "half",
 an means "without", and
 Opsia means "seeing".
The most common causes of this damage are stroke, brain tumor, and trauma. A lesion
within the upper pathway (parietal above temporal) would have resulted in a loss of visual
information in the lower visual field; in the example this would cause a right lower
quadrantanopia.

Quadrantanopia

Quadrantanopia is decreased vision or blindness in one quarter of the visual field. The
particular quarter of vision missing depends on whether the location of the brain damage is
temporal or parietal, and the side of the lesion. For example, a lesion to the right temporal lobe
with damage specifically to Meyer's loop will give rise to a left upper (superior)
quadrantanopsia, while a lesion to the right parietal radiation will result in a left lower
quadrantanopsia.

Homonymous hemianopia

Homonymous hemianopia is a visual field defect involving either the two right or the two
left halves of the visual fields of both eyes. It is caused by lesions of the visual pathways, i.e.,
lesions of the optic tract, the lateral geniculate nucleus, the optic radiations, and the cerebral
visual (occipital) cortex. Characteristics of the visual field abnormalities (type, form, size, and
congruity), along with associated neurologic signs and symptoms, have been traditionally used
for localizing pathologic lesions in the brain. Homonymous hemianopia is often disabling,
causing difficulties with reading and visual scanning. Patients may fail to notice relevant objects
or avoid obstacles on the affected side, causing collisions with approaching people or cars.

A cardinal rule

A cardinal rule is therefore that when there is a disorder of visual sensation which affects
one side of the visual field it can often be assumed that the damage causing the problem is in the
contra lateral or opposite brain hemisphere. As indicated, the main pathway responsible for
visual perception travels from the retina to the thalamus – more specifically the lateral geniculate
nucleus of the thalamus (LGN) on each side.

Losses of sensation due to lesions at the visual pathway

There are types of losses of sensation that can occur due to lesions at the various parts of
the visual pathway. Broadly, large lesions to the left hemisphere result in difficulties in seeing
the right visual field (right homonymous hemianopia), while lesions to the right hemisphere may
result in a left homonymous hemianopia. Lesions to one of the optic radiations in isolation cause
the quadrantanopia. Lesions to the upper branch of the radiations which travel above cause the
lowest quarter of the field to be affected. For example when patient described a difficulty in
seeing the left lower visual field (left lower quadrantanopia) this was suggestive of either a right
parietal lesion or a right occipital lesion above the calcarine fissure.

Pituitary tumor

Pituitary tumors are abnormal growths that develop in your pituitary gland. Some
pituitary tumors result in too much of the hormones that regulate important functions of your
body. Some pituitary tumors can cause your pituitary gland to produce lower levels of hormones.
Most pituitary tumors are noncancerous (benign). There are various options for treating pituitary
tumors, including removing the tumor, controlling its growth and managing your hormone levels
with medications.

A pituitary tumor may cause sensory disturbances. The pituitary gland is just below the
optic chiasm, and therefore the growth of a tumor can result in the two optic nerves being
pressed from underneath affecting the nasal (inside) fibers prior to their crossing. This may lead
to a number of effects, including loss of sensation to the nasal aspects of the retina (nearest the
nose) resulting in a loss of some peripheral vision on both sides.

Sometimes a patient’s sensitivity to visual stimuli is tested by a method referred to as

‘perimetry’. In this test a spherical frame is placed around the head of the patient. The frame has
small lights placed at various points within the patient’s visual field. The examiner tests the
patient’s visual field by switching on lights in various areas of the frame of the cage while the
patient looks straight ahead. If a patient fails to detect a light it is assumed that there is a lack of
sensation in that area. The clinician may ask the patient if they can see their moving finger as
they sit opposite the patient.

Disorders of sensation of hearing

Deficits in auditory sensation

Deficits in auditory sensation from cortical deafness are often associated with bilateral
damage or disconnection of Heschl’s gyrus. Disconnection or bilateral damage to Heschl’s gyrus
results in the patient responding like a deaf person; luckily, these bilateral lesions are very rare.
Cortical deafness is the auditory equivalent to cortical blindness, which occurs when the visual
cortex is extensively damaged or disconnected.

Bilateral lesion

Bilateral lesion is a condition in which patients have a distorted or muffled perception of

speech. Many of the bilateral cases share one essential feature: after the first (unilateral) lesion,
speech perception was typically intact after an initial period of disturbance. Only after the second
lesion (in the other hemisphere) were permanent speech perception problems the consistent
outcome.
 Disorders of sensation of touch
Astereognosis

Astereognosis is the tactile equivalent of hemianopia. The patient is denied sensation for
a part of the body and is tested by recognizing a series of objects through touch. Patients with
damage to primary sensation who are unable to report haptic (e.g. tactile sensation) information
are referred to as suffering astereognosis. From the retina the visual information travels via the
lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) to Brodmann’s area. The cochlear auditory system information
travels via the medial geniculate (MG) nucleus to Heschl’s gyrus. Astereognosis is used to
describe a lack of sensory differentiation. It is defined as impaired tactual spatial perception due
to severe basic somatosensory perceptual impairment. Like cortical blindness and cortical
deafness, astereognosis involves bilateral damage or disconnection affecting the primary
somatosensory areas.

Neural Pathways
Sensory systems are extremely diverse; vision, audition, body senses, taste, and olfaction
are common. But our perceptions and behavior in relation to these senses are very different.
A neural pathway is a series of connected neurons that send signals from one part of the brain to
another.

Neural Relay

Neural relays allow sensory systems to interact. All receptors connect to the cortex
through a sequence of three or four intervening neurons.

Sensory Receptors

Sensory receptors are specialized cells that transducer or convert, sensory energy (for
example, light photons) into neural activity.

Receptors Transduce Energy

Sensory system’s receptors are specialized to filter a different form of energy. Each type
of sensory receptor transduces the physical or chemical energy that it receives into action
potentials.

 For vision, light energy is converted into chemical energy in the photoreceptors of the retina,
and this chemical energy is in turn converted into action potentials.
 In the auditory system, air-pressure waves are converted into a number of forms of
mechanical energy, which eventually activates the auditory receptors thus produce action
potentials.
 In the somatosensory system, mechanical energy activates mechanoreceptors, cells that are
sensitive to touch or pain. Somatosensory receptors in turn generate action potentials.
 For pain sensation, tissue damage releases a chemical that acts like a neurotransmitter to
activate pain fibers and thus produce action potentials.
 For taste and olfaction, various chemical molecules carried by the air or contained in food fit
themselves into receptors of various shapes to activate action potentials.

Exteroceptive and Interceptive receptors

Receptors that respond to external stimuli or agent are called exteroceptive. For example,
objects in the world that we see, that touch us, or that are touched by us and objects that we smell
or taste act on exteroceptive receptors. Receptors that respond to our own activity are called
interceptive. Interceptive receptors exist in our muscles and joints and in the vestibular organs
of the inner ear. People who experience hallucinations perceive events that are being generated
internally as coming from outside themselves.

1. Vision

Within each of our five sensory systems are many subsystems, which are surprisingly
independent in their functions. The known visual subsystems each consists of a discrete visual
center in the brain and the pathway that connects the retina to the visual center.

i. The pathway from the eye to the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus controls the
daily rhythms of such behaviors as feeding and sleeping in response to light changes.
ii. The pathway to the pretectum in the midbrain controls pupillary responses to light.
iii. The pathway to the pineal gland controls long-term circadian rhythms.
iv. The pathway to the superior colliculus in the midbrain controls head orientation to objects.
v. The pathway to the accessory optic nucleus moves the eyes to compensate for head
movements.
vi. The pathway to the visual cortex controls pattern perception, depth perception, color vision,
and the tracking of moving objects.
vii. The pathway to the frontal cortex controls voluntary eye movements.

Visual Pathways

Four neurons conduct visual impulses to the visual cortex.

i. Rods and cones; specialized receptor neurons in the retina, transduce light energy into action
potentials. Rods are sensitive to dim light, are used mainly for night vision. Cones are better
able to transduce bright light and are used for daytime vision.
ii. Bipolar neurons; connects the rods and cons to the ganglion cells.
iii. Ganglion cells; whose axons pass to the lateral geniculate body
iv. Neurons of the lateral geniculate body, whose axons pass to the cerebral cortex
 The axons of ganglion cells leave the retina to form the optic nerve. Just before entering
the brain, the two optic nerves (one from each eye) meet and form the optic chiasm (from the
Greek letter X, or chi). At this point, about half the fibers from each eye cross, so the right half of
each eye’s visual field is represented in the left hemisphere of the brain and the left half of each
eye’s visual field is represented in the right hemisphere of the brain. Having entered the brain
proper, the optic tract, still consisting of the axons of retinal ganglion cells, diverges to form two
main pathways to the visual cortex. Both pathways relay through the thalamus.

The larger projection synapses in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of the thalamus,
on neurons that then project to the primary visual cortex; V1.The LGN has six layers: layers 2, 3
and 5 receive fibers from the ipsilateral eye, while layers 1, 4 and 6 receive fibers from the contra
lateral eye. The LGN cells project mainly to layer IV of the primary visual cortex, has the
appearance of a stripe across the visual cortex, named as striate (striped) cortex. The central part
of the visual field is represented at the back of the visual cortex, and the peripheral part is
represented toward the front of the visual cortex. The upper part of the visual field is represented
below the calcarine fissure at the middle of the occipital lobe, and the lower part of the visual
world is represented above the calcarine fissure.

i. The major visual pathway from the retina to the LGN to the striate cortex is the
geniculostriate pathway, bridging the thalamus (geniculate) and the striate cortex. The
geniculostriate pathway takes part in pattern recognition and conscious visual functions.
ii. The second main visual pathway takes part in detecting and orienting to visual stimulation.
This tectopulvinar pathway relays from the eye to the superior colliculus in the midbrain
tectum and reaches the visual areas in the temporal and parietal lobes through relays in the
lateral posterior-pulvinar complex of the thalamus.
2. Auditory Pathways

The cochlear nerve conducts nerve impulses concerned with sound from the organ of
corti in the cochlea. The fibers of the cochlear nerve are the central processes of the nerve cells
located in the spinal ganglion of the cochlea. The axons of hair cells leave the cochlea to form
the major part of the auditory nerve, the eighth cranial nerve. This nerve projects to the level of
the medulla in the hindbrain, synapsing either in the dorsal or ventral cochlear nuclei or in the
superior olivary nucleus. The axons of neurons in these areas form the lateral lemniscus, which
terminates in discrete zones of the inferior colliculus in the midbrain. Two distinct pathways
emerge from the colliculus, coursing to the ventral and the dorsal medial geniculate nuclei in the
thalamus.

i. The ventral region projects to the core auditory cortex; includes the upper surface of superior
temporal gyrus
ii. The dorsal region projects to the secondary auditory regions; the recognition and
interpretation of the sound on the basis of past experience takes place.
 Thus adhering to the sensory systems’ general pattern of having multiple, independent
ascending pathways to the cortex. In contrast with the visual-system pathways, the projections of
the auditory system provide both ipsilateral and contra lateral inputs to the cortex; so there is
bilateral representation of each cochlear nucleus in both hemispheres.

3. Body Senses

Both the visual and the auditory senses are exteroceptive systems because they are
sensitive to stimuli from the external environment. The somatosensory system, the body
awareness system also has an exteroceptive function but it is also interceptive, monitoring
internal bodily events and informing the brain of the positions of body segments relative to one
another and of the position of the body in space. Thus the somatosensory system is not a single
sense but rather is composed of several sub modalities, even with respect to its extereoceptive
and
interceptive functions. Four major somatosensory sub modalities are:

1) Nocioception, the perception of unpleasant stimuli, particularly pain and

temperature.
2) Hapsis, the perception of objects with the use of fine touch and pressure
receptors.
3) Proprioception or body sense
4) Balance which is mediated by a specialized receptor system in the
inner ear.

Somatosensory Pathways

Two major somatosensory pathways extend from the spinal cord to the brain:

i. A dorsal tract for hapsis and proprioception

ii. A ventral tract for nocioception

The fibers of the somatosensory neurons that make up the hapsis and proprioception
system are relatively large and heavily myelinated. Their cell bodies are located in the dorsal-
root ganglia, their dendrites project to the
sensory receptors in the body, and their axons project into the spinal cord. In the spinal cord, the
axons of this system ascend through the dorsal column to synapse in the dorsal-column nuclei in
the base of the brainstem. The cell bodies of these nuclei send their axons across the spinal cord
to form the medial lemniscus, which ascends to synapse in the ventrolateral thalamus. This
thalamic nucleus then projects to the primary somatosensory cortex (SI, or Brodmann’s area 3-1-
2), as well as to the primary motor cortex.
The fibers of the pathway for pain and temperature sensations are somewhat smaller and
less myelinated than those of the hapsis and proprioception pathway. They follow the same
course to enter the spinal cord but, once there, project to neurons in the more central region of
the spinal cord, the substantia gelatinosa. The second-relay cells then send their axons across to
the other side of the cord, where they form the ventral spinothalamic tract. These ventral fibers
eventually join the dorsal touch and proprioception fibers in the medial lemniscus. They, too,
terminate primarily in the ventrolateral thalamus and posterior thalamus; and these
messages, are relayed in turn to area 3-1-2 of the cortex.

4. Gustatory Pathways

For taste, the receptors are the taste buds, which most people mistakenly believe
to be the bumps on the tongue. These bumps are called papillae, are probably
there to help the tongue grasp food; the taste buds lie buried around them. Chemicals in food
dissolve in the saliva that coats the tongue and disperse through the saliva to reach the taste
receptors. Three cranial nerves (Glossopharyngeal nerve, Vagus nerve and facial nerve) carry
information from the tongue. All three nerves enter the solitary tract, the main gustatory tract. At
that point, the pathway divides into two routes.

i. One route goes to the ventroposterior medial nucleus of the thalamus, which in turn sends out
two pathways; one to SI and the other to a region just rostral to SII, in the insular cortex. The
latter region is probably dedicated entirely to taste, because it is not responsive to tactile
stimulation. In contrast, the SI projection is sensitive to tactile stimuli and is probably
responsible for the localization of tastes on the tongue. Those who enjoy wine are familiar
with this distinction because wines are described not only by their gustatory qualities but also
by the way that they taste on different parts of the tongue. These areas project in turn to the
orbitofrontal cortex, which may be the secondary taste area.
ii. The other route from the solitary tract leads to the pontine taste area, which in turn projects to
the lateral hypothalamus and amygdala.
5. Olfactory Pathways

The receptor surface for olfaction is the olfactory epithelium, located in the nasal cavity.
The axons of the olfactory-receptor relays synapse in the olfactory bulb, which is made up of
several layers and may be conceptualized as an analogue to the retina. The major output of the
bulb is the lateral olfactory tract, which passes ipsilaterally to the pyriform cortex, the amygdala,
and the entorhinal cortex. The primary projection of the pyriform cortex goes to the central part
of the dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus, which in turn projects to the orbitofrontal cortex.
Thus, the orbitofrontal cortex can be considered the primary olfactory neocortex.

Gestalt psychology
The Gestalt law of grouping is a set of principles in psychology first proposed by Gestalt
psychologists to explain how humans naturally perceive stimuli as organized patterns and
objects. Gestalt psychology tries to understand the laws of our ability to acquire and maintain
meaningful perceptions in an apparently chaotic world. The central principle of Gestalt
psychology is that the mind forms a global whole with self-organizing tendencies. The gestalt
effect is the capability of our brain to generate whole forms, particularly with respect to the
visual recognition of global figures, instead of just collections of simpler and unrelated elements.
Essentially, Gestalt psychology says that our brain groups elements together whenever possible
instead of keeping them as separate elements.

According to Gestalt psychologists;

“The whole is different than the sum of its parts”

Example

When we listen to music, we do not hear a series of disconnected or random tunes. We

interpret the music as a whole, relating the sounds to each other based on how similar they are in
pitch, how close together they are in time and other factors. We can perceive melodies, patterns
and form in music.

Gestalt laws of perceptual organization

The three founders of Gestalt psychology were German researchers Max Wertheimer,
Kurt Koftka and Wolfgang Kohler. These men identified a number of principles in the early
1900’s, by which people organize isolated parts of a visual stimulus into groups or whole
objects. There are six main laws of perceptual organization.

The law of proximity

This law posits that when we perceive a collection of objects we will perceptually group
together objects that are physically close to each other. This allows for the grouping together of
elements into larger sets, and reduces the need to process a larger number of smaller stimuli. For
this reason, people tend to see clusters of dots on a page instead of a large number of individual
dots. The brain groups together the elements instead of processing a large number of smaller
stimuli, allowing us to understand and conceptualize information more quickly.

The law of similarity

This law states that people will perceive similar elements will be perceptually grouped
together. This allows us to distinguish between adjacent and overlapping objects based on their
visual texture and resemblance.

The law of continuity

The law of continuity holds that points that are connected by straight or curving lines are
seen in a way that follows the smoothest path. Rather than seeing separate lines and angles, lines
are seen as belonging together. This law stated that smooth and flowing figures are more easily
perceived than broken and choppy figures.
The law of closure

According to the law of closure, things are grouped together if they seem to complete
some entity. Our brains often ignore contradictory information and fill in gaps in information.
According to the law of closure, we prefer complete forms to incomplete forms.

The law of common fate

This Gestalt law of perceptual organization suggests that elements that are grouped
together within the same region of space tend to be grouped together. For example, imagine that
three of the balls are moving in one direction and two of the balls are moving in the opposite
direction. If we saw these in actual motion we would mentally group that moved in the same
direction because of this principle, we often see flocks of birds or schools of fish as one unit.

The law of simplicity

This law holds that objects in the environment are seen in a way that makes them appear
as simple as possible. This law states that we observe a pattern, we perceive it in the most basic,
straightforward manner that we can.

Figure and Ground

Perception does not only involve organization and grouping, it also involves
distinguishing an object from its surroundings.

Background

Once we perceive an object, the area around that object is the background. For example,
when we look at the computer monitor, the wall behind it becomes the background. The object or
figure, is closer to us and the background or ground is further away.

Qualities of a Figure

1. Figure is usually consistent and smooth in texture.

2. Figure has usually well defined shape.
3. Boundaries of a figure are sharp and well drawn.

Qualities of a Background

1. Ground is usually of light colors.

2. The texture of the ground is not well defined
Ambiguous figure-ground relationships

Gestalt psychologists have devised ambiguous figure-ground relationships that is,

drawings in which the figure and ground can be reversed. To illustrate their point that the whole
is different than the sum of its parts, consider the example of Rubin vase face figure.

When you see the faces in the Rubin figure, the ‘face area’ of your brain is more strongly
activated (Andrew, et al. 2002). This area in the temporal and occipital lobes is activated when
viewing and interpreting faces.

Perceptual Constancy
Perceptual constancy is a phenomenon in which physical objects are perceived as
unvarying and consistent despite changes in their appearance or in the physical environment.
Psychologists have identified a number of perceptual constancies including size constancy, color
constancy and shape constancy.

1. Lightness constancy

Lightness constancy means that our perception of an object’s lightness or darkness

remains constant despite changes in the illumination. For example, consider the following
demonstration. First take a plain white sheet of a paper into a brightly light room, the paper
appears to be white then turn out the few of the lights in the room the paper continues to appear
white. If turning out of some lights will not make the room pitch black, turn out some more
lights. The paper appears to be white regardless of the actual amount of light energy that enters
the eyes.

Perception is relative

Lightness constancy illustrates an important perceptual principle; perception is relative.

Lightness constancy may occur because the white piece of paper reflects more light than any of
the other objects in the room regardless of the different lightening conditions. Lightness actually
determines the color of the object on a scale from white through black.

Helmholtz explanation

Another explanation proposed by 19 century German psychologist Hermann Helmholtz is

that we unconsciously take the lighting of the room into consideration while judging the
lightness of the object.

2. Color constancy

Color constancy means that we perceive the color of an object as the same despite
changes in the lighting conditions. For example, the color perceived by the retina in the shadow
and bright sunny day s different, but color constancy allows us to perceive an object as roughly
the same despite of changes in the retinal image.

3. Shape constancy

Shape constancy means that we perceive objects as retaining the same shape despite
changes in their orientation. For example, if we hold a book in front of our face so that we are
looking directly at the cover, the rectangular nature of the book should be very clear. Now if we
rotate the book away from us so that the bottom edge of the cover is much closer to us than the
top edge. The image of the book on our retina will now be quite different. In fact, the image will
now be trapezoidal, with the bottom edge of the book larger on our retina than the top edge. In
spite of this trapezoidal retinal image, we will continue to see the book as rectangular.

4. Size constancy

Size constancy means that the tendency to perceive the objects as staying the same in size
despite changes in our distance from them. For example, the image on the retina varies as a plane
approaches flies overhead and disappears. Yet, we do not perceive the plane as changing size.
Instead we perceive it as unchanging despite the physical variation that occurs.

Moon illusion

One of the most dramatic examples of size constancy involves the rising moon. When the
moon first appears at the night close to the horizon, it seems to be huge. Considerably larger than
when it is high in the sky later in the evening.

Explanation

When the moon is near the horizon, the perceptual cues of intervening objects such as
trees on the horizon produce a misleading sense of distance. Because perceptual constancy leads
us to take that distance into account when we view the moon, we perceive the moon as relatively
large. On the other hand, when the moon is high in the sky, we see it by itself, and perceptual
constancy leads us to perceive it as relatively small.

Top Down and Bottom Up Processing

Ca- yo- re-d t-is –en-en-e w-ic- ha- ev-ry –hi-d l-tt-r m-ss-ng?

It probably won’t take too long to figure out what it says,

“Can you read this sentence, which has every third letter missing?” If perception were based
primarily on breaking down a stimulus into its most basic elements, understanding the sentence
as well as other ambiguous stimulus would not be possible. The fact that we were probably able
to recognize such a imprecise stimulus illustrates that perception proceeds along two different
avenues called top-down processing and bottom-up processing.
Top-down Processing

“Perception guided by higher level knowledge, experience, expectations and

motivations”. Consider the following example;

A I3 C D E F

10 11 12 13 14

Most of us perceive that the first row consists of the letters A through F, while the second
row contains the number 10 through 14, but take a more careful look and we’ll see that the B and
the number 13 are identical. We were able to figure out the meaning of the sentence because of
our prior reading experience.

Importance of Top-down processing

The Top-down processing allows us to fill in the gaps in ambiguous and out of context
stimuli.

Bottom-up Processing

Bottom-up processing consists of recognizing and processing information about the

individual components of the stimuli. These individual components are then used to understand
the overall nature of what we perceive. Individual neurons in the brain are sensitive to specific
spatial configuration, such as angles, curves, shapes and edges. The presence of theses neurons
suggests that any stimulus can be broken down into series of component features.

For example, the letter R is a combination of a vertical line, a diagonal line and a half
circle. When we encounter a stimulus, such as a letter, our brain’s perceptual processing system
initially responds to its component parts. Each of this part is compared with information about
components that is stored in memory. When the specific components we perceive matches up
with the particular set of components that we have encountered previously, we are able to
identify the stimulus.

Types of Perception
1. Depth perception

Depth perception is the ability to see the world in three dimensions and to perceive
distance.

Main sources of information to perceive depth

To perceive depth, we depend on two main sources of information;

 Binocular cues
 Monocular cues
 Binocular Cues

A depth cue that allows perception using both the eyes.

Binocular disparity

Because our eyes are spaced about 7cm apart, the left and right retinas receive slightly
different images. This difference in the left and right images is called binocular disparity. The
brain integrates these two images into a single three dimensional image, allowing us to perceive
depth and distance.

For example, hold a pencil at arm’s length and look it first with one eye and then with the
other eye. There is a little difference between the views relative to the background. Now bring
the pencil just 6 inches away from your face and try the same thing. This time you will perceive
a greater difference between the two views.

The fact that the discrepancy between the images in the two eyes varies according to the
distance of the objects that we view provide us with a mean of determining distance. If we view
two objects, and one is considerably closer to us than another, the retinal disparity will be
relatively large and we will have a greater sense of depth between the two. On the other hand, if
the two objects are a similar distance from us, the retinal disparity will be minor.

Use of binocular disparity

a) Stereoscopes
b) 3-D movies

Stereoscopes

A stereoscope is a viewing device that presents each eye with a slightly different
photograph of the same scene, which generates the illusion of depth.

3-D movies

Filmmakers have made use of binocular disparity to create 3-D movies. In 3-D movies,
two slightly different images are projected on to the same screen. Viewers wear special glasses
that use color filters and polarizing filters. The filters separate the image so that each eye
receives the image intended for it. The brain combines the two images into a single three
dimensional image. Viewers who watch the film without the glasses see a double image.

Limitations of binocular disparity

Although binocular disparity is a very useful depth cue, it is only effective over a fairly
short range less than 3m (10ft). As our distance from objects increase, the binocular disparity
decreases that is the images received by each retina become more and more similar. Therefore,
for distant objects, our perceptual system cannot rely on binocular disparity as a depth cue.

 Monocular cues

Cues which allows us to perceive depth with just one eye.

Kinds of monocular cues

 Texture gradient
 Linear perspective
 Size cues
 Motion parallax
2. Motion Perception

Motion perception is the judgment of movement and location of an object when it is

moving.

Uses of motion perception

a. Automobile drivers rely on motion perception to judge the speeds of other cars and avoid
collisions.
b. It allows a baseball outfielder to calculate the speed and trajectory of a ball with
extraordinary accuracy.
3. A-modal perception

A-modal perception is the term used to describe the full perception of a physical structure
when it is only partially perceived. For example, a table will be perceived as a complete
volumetric structure even if only one part of it is visible; the internal volumes and hidden rear
surfaces are perceived despite the fact that only the near surfaces are exposed to view.

4. Color perception

Color perception is the capacity of an organism or machine to distinguish objects based

on the wavelengths of the light they reflect or emit. The nervous system derives color by
comparing the responses to light from the several types of cones photoreceptors in the eye. These
cone photoreceptors are sensitive to different portions of the visible spectrum.

5. Speech perception

Speech perception refers to the processes by which humans are able to interpret and
understand the sounds used in language. Research in speech perception seeks to understand how
human listeners recognize speech sound and use this information to understand spoken language.
6. Extrasensory perception

Extrasensory perception (ESP) is the ability to acquire information by paranormal means

independent of any known physical senses or deduction from previous experience. Some of the
extrasensory perception involve; telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition etc.

7. Time perception

Time perception is a basic component of the measuring system used o sequence events,
to compare the durations of the events and the intervals between them and to quantify the
motions of the objects.

Determinants of perception
How we recognize our experience of the world depends on a number of factors. These
determinants of perception can be divided into two types.

1. Objective or stimulus factors

2. Subjective or personal factors

Objective or stimulus factors

 Contrast
 Intensity
 Familiarity
 Repetition
 Physical size
 Motion
 Novelty

Subjective or personal factors

 Biological needs
 Sensory deprivation
 Attention
 Focus and margin
 Shifting attention
 Mental set
 Motivation
 Values
 Past experience
 Culture factor
 Pathology of Perception
A patient must be conscious in order to perceive the world around them. An exploration
of consciousness is outside the remit of this article though recently reviewed by others. The
patient must also have the capacity to attend selectively in order to focus on one part of the
sensorium. Perceptual processing is then necessary to identify what is being perceived through
the various sensory modalities (namely vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste), thus allowing access
to semantic knowledge and through this understanding of the environment.

Perceptual disorders are the cognitive disorders characterized by impaired ability to

perceive the nature of objects or concepts through use of sense organs.

Perceptual Processing
Normal visual processing
Visual processing involves signal relay from the retina via the lateral geniculate nucleus
to the striate cortex (area V1). In the visual cortex itself, there is initially strong retinotopic
localization, such that striate occipital lesions cause deficits restricted to segments of the visual
field. Extra striate visual cortex is organized more by process than by visual field location—that
is, different areas of extra striate cortex are involved in color, motion perception, etc. Extra
striate deficits therefore cause deficits in aspects of vision, such as perception of motion,
affecting the entire visual field.
Broadly speaking, extra striate regions group into two streams: the ventral
occipitotemporal “what” stream is involved in object recognition, while the occipitoparietal
“where” stream is involved in spatial processing. The ventral stream runs below the calcarine
fissure into the medial temporal lobe, while the dorsal stream extends superolaterally from the
striate cortex into occipitoparietal and temporoparieto-occipital areas.
Lesions to the ventral or dorsal streams of visual processing can give rise to different
clinical deficits. Ventral stream lesions may produce defects such as object agnosia,
prosopagnosia, alexia and Achromatopsia, while dorsal stream defects include akinetopsia and
Balint syndrome.

Disorders of Ventral Stream

1. Agnosia
The term agnosia is used to describe a modality specific inability to access semantic
knowledge of an object or other stimulus that cannot be attributed to impairment of basic
perceptual processes—that is, it relates to a normal percept stripped of its meaning. Agnosia may
apply to any sensory modality.
 Gnosis essentially means “to know”. Agnosia means “without knowledge”. Agnosia
causes the victims to lose the ability to recognize or comprehend the meaning of objects even
with intact senses.

A) Visual Agnosia

Partial or total loss, inability to recognize visual stimuli, is impairment in recognition of

visually presented objects. It is not due to a deficit in vision, language, memory, or intellect. It
only involves loss of visual knowledge. They can neither produce unique semantic identifying
information nor name the percept.

Visual agnosia is sometimes further subdivided into 

1. Apperceptive visual agnosia: where a deficit in high level perception is implicated (usually

widespread, bilateral occipitotemporal infarction- usually deficits in “what stream- early deficits
in visual perception)

2. Associative visual agnosia: where high level perception is preserved but the percept is unable
to activate semantic identifying information (usually anterior left temporal lobe-usually deficits
in “where stream- loss of semantic knowledge).
The term visual agnosia is best restricted to the inability to access semantic information
through the visual modality only, with retained semantic knowledge accessible through other
modalities such as auditory. So called associative visual agnosia often involves a more general
loss of semantic knowledge, with no ability to access this via any sensory modality.
A generalized visual agnosia may occur in a diffuse hypoxic insult, such as in carbon
monoxide poisoning. However, more selective Agnosia may also occur. Indeed, deficits may
selectively impair ability to identify words or faces (that is, dyslexia and prosopagnosia,
respectively), and can occur with focal temporal lesions
2. Alexia

Language is a specialized symbolic representation of the world around us, allowing us to

communicate our inner thoughts with others. With regard to perception, language may be
accessed through the visual or auditory modality, namely reading or hearing speech respectively.
Reading is a very complex activity. It requires the eye to fixate on the written word,
perception, eye movements, and central language to allow understanding of the written word.
Deficits in any of these areas can impair the ability to read—that is, alexia. Alexia may
be peripheral (where there is difficulty transmitting the visual percept to the intact language
centers) or central (due to an impaired language system).
Examples of peripheral alexia include impaired visual acuity as a result of ocular
problems, or a visual field defect, even if this does not involve central fixation. Disorders of
visual attention such as visual neglect may also impair reading activity. For example, neglect
dyslexia results in the patient being unable to read the left hand side of words—for example, for
SISTER, the patient will only perceive -TER. On the motor side, impaired ability to coordinate
eye movements such as ocular motor apraxia or saccadic intrusions may also impair reading
ability.

Disorders of face perception

A .Prosopagnosia:

Prosopagnosia refers to a patient’s inability to recognize a person simply by studying

their face. Once other means of recognition come into play (for example, if the person has a
characteristic voice or gait, etc), this allows access to unique semantic identifying information—
that is, and there is no loss of knowledge of the person. Covert recognition of apparently
unrecognized faces is supported by studies of galvanic skin responses; these being greater when
viewing faces that were previously known, implying that face identification may occur at
unconscious levels.
Prosopagnosia is best understood by means of employing current models of face
recognition. It can occur with ventral occipitotemporal pathology, especially right sided.

Other face recognition disorders

B .Capgras syndrome:

People who experience this syndrome will have an irrational belief that someone they
know or recognize has been replaced by an imposter. Capgras syndrome is a form of delusional
misidentification in which the patient believes that familiar people have been replaced by
impostors. Attempts to explain this condition involve theories of face recognition. Normally, it is
claimed that when viewing a face, the conscious stream will result in recognition, while the
unconscious stream may invoke feelings of empathy if it is a liked person. Normally, there is no
conflict between these parallel streams, and recognition occurs. It is claimed that in Capgras,
there may be damage to streams of unconscious processing. This can result in dissociation
between the conscious stream identifying a person as, say, wife, and the lack of unconscious
empathic feelings. The lack of concordance between these two streams (that is, looks like wife
but no feelings of empathy) may therefore be resolved cognitively by the contention that the
loved one has been replaced by an impostor (explaining the dissonance). The lack of
concordance between conscious and unconscious streams has been ascribed to a disconnection
between the cognitive and emotional streams, anatomically represented by fusiform gyrus of the
right temporal lobe and the limbic system, respectively.

C .Fregoli syndrome:
 It is a delusional belief that a person acquires different physical identities while
psychological identities remain the same. It is caused by Injury to the right frontal and left
tempero-parietal areas can cause Fregoli syndrome.

Disorders of color
Achromatopsia
It refers to a loss of the ability to perceive colors. Patients usually describe this as like
watching black-and-white television. It results from lesions affecting the medial occipito-
temporal region, in particular fusiform gyri.
Color agnosia is not a perceptual deficit (as demonstrated by intact matching tasks) but
reflects a loss of semantic knowledge of color. It is really a category specific semantic memory
impairment for color and the term “color agnosia” is unfortunate.
In color anomia, there is both preserved perception and semantic knowledge regarding color, but
simply a deficit in color naming. These deficits may be tested by assessing color discrimination,
color knowledge, and color naming.

Disorders of Dorsal Stream

A .Disorders of motion perception

Selective impairment of motion perception is rare, and tends to be associated with

damage to areas of extra striate visual cortex analogous to V5—that is, bilateral lesions of the
lateral occipitotemporal area. Patients may have no impression of motion in depth or of rapid
motion. Fast targets appear to jump rather than move. Particular difficulties are encountered
judging the speed and direction of cars.

Akinetopsia (Greek: a for "without", kine for "to move" and opsia for "seeing"), also
known as cerebral akinetopsia or motion blindness, is a neuropsychological disorder in which a
patient cannot perceive motion in their visual field, despite being able to see stationary objects
without issue.

B .Disorders of Spatial Perception

Balint syndrome is a disorder of spatial perception comprising three aspects:

simultanagnosia (the inability to comprehend a complex scene in its entirety—that is, only one
component of the scene is perceived at a time), optic ataxia (inability to reach by hand for targets
presented visually), and ocular motor apraxia (inability to direct gaze to a visual target). Patients
complain of visual difficulties, and may appear functionally blind. They exhibit a curious
searching head thrust, by which they aim to search their environment item by item (sometimes
unfortunately but accurately compared to the head thrusts of a hen searching for food). Pathology
usually is bilateral superior parieto-occipital. It may be cerebrovascular due to “watershed”
infarction, or be neurodegenerative as in the posterior cortical atrophy variant of Alzheimer’s
disease.

Other higher order deficits of vision

1. Charles Bonnet Syndrome

It is a condition that causes people with decreased vision and various eye diseases to have
visual hallucinations. These hallucinations can include seeing patterns, or more complex images
such as people, animals, flowers, and buildings.

This comprises positive visual phenomena occurring in areas of visual field deficit,
whether this is total or partial. It often arises in the elderly as a result of ocular pathology—for
example, age related macular degeneration. The images tend to be complex (for example.
animals, people) and insight is usually retained. It is caused by the brain's adjustment to
significant vision loss.

2. Peduncular hallucinosis

It is a rare neurological disorder that causes vivid visual hallucinations that typically

occur in dark environments and last for several minutes. It is most commonly caused by lesions
to the midbrain and thalamus, either alone or in combination with other areas of the brain.
Following midbrain stroke, vivid hallucinations may arise, which tend to occur in the evenings,
and have a tendency to disappear over weeks.

3. Auditory Agnosia

The inability to understand the meaning of sounds in the context of preserved basic
auditory perception is called auditory agnosia. Strictly speaking, Wernicke’s aphasia is a form of
auditory agnosia for words, though language disorders are out with the remit of this review. In
practice the term “auditory agnosia” tends to be applied to non-verbal sounds—for example,
environmental sounds such as traffic, aircraft noise, etc. Most patients with this have bilateral
lesions of the auditory cortex. The disorder is normally of acute onset, and initially the patient
becomes almost entirely deaf—that is, cortically deaf. Normally, however, this improves such
that the patient hears auditory stimuli. Auditory perception returns to normal (tested clinically by
the examiner snapping fingers behind patient’s head) but the patient remains unable to identify
the sound. Although restricted category specific forms may exist, most auditory Agnosias refer
to a wide group of environmental sounds.

4. Tactile Agnosia (Astereognosis)

 Patient finds it difficult to recognize objects by touch based on its texture, size and
weight. However, they may be able to describe it verbally or recognize same kind of objects
from pictures or draw pictures of them. Thought to be connected to lesions or damage
in somatosensory cortex. This form of sensation may be altered by lesions of the cerebral cortex
as well as by injuries to peripheral nerve.

Theories of Perception

There are two types of theories to perception; there is the self-perception theory, and the
cognitive dissonance theory.
Self perception Theory
First, the self-perception theory, inspired by B. F. Skinner’s analyses, is when individuals
come to “know” or better understand their own attitudes, emotions, and other personal states
mostly by concluding them from observing their own behavior and/or the situations in which this
behavior occurs. One example would be an individual who describes “butterflies in the
stomach”. We have all identified this feeling for ourselves, on our own. Self-perception theory
describes the process in which people, lacking initial attitudes or emotional responses develop
them by observing their own behavior and coming to conclusions as to what attitudes must have
driven that behavior. Psychologist Daryl Bam originally developed this theory of attitude
formation in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
The cognitive dissonance theory is a person having two thoughts that contradict each
other. For example, a person that thinks eating sugar is bad for you, but then continues to eat
sugar because they believe that by not eating sugar, it wouldn’t change anything, so nothing will
change the current health the individual is in. These thoughts are contradicting, almost
hypocritical. According to Leon Festinger, the existence of dissonance causes the individual to
be psychologically uncomfortable, which then allows the individual to try to remain constant in
his/her thoughts. Also, while the individual wants to become consistent, the individual will try to
avoid situations that include that subject that causes dissonance.
Stages of Perception
There are 5 Stages of Perception
1. Stimulation
The occurrence of sensory stimulation basically this part of perception process involves
in contact with a particular stimulus. The world is full of stimuli that can attract our attention
through various senses. Thus we are able to describe systematically the sights, sound, smell and
taste that populate our conscious experience. Stimulation includes selective attention and
selective exposure.
2. Organization
The capacity to identify and recognize objects and events is crucial for normal
perception. Without that capacity, people cannot effectively use their senses. Organized by rules,
people perceive things that are physically close together constitute a unit. People developed
schemata from actual experiences as well as vicarious experience from daily activities or from
television, reading or hearsay. Some familiarity represented in mind will be some kind of
schema. This would help one’s perception to categories into number of categories. However, it
may cause perception errors as it influences one’s to perceive nonexistence things or miss seeing
things in presence. A script is a form of schema that focuses on action, event or procedure. It is a
process of how we behaved and how we organized it with our own action which organized by a
pattern.
3. Interpretation-Evaluation
In this interpretation-evaluation stage it is two process of stimuli by individual
experiences, needs, wants, values, expectations, physical and emotional state, gender and beliefs
meaning based on by individual’s rules, schemata and scripts. For example meeting a new person
who is a doctor, one’s tend to view this person as someone serious, successful, health conscious,
academic strong. In other words, evaluating individuals depending on one’s own script the way
individual behave and perform the action appropriate or inappropriate.
4. Memory
After undergoing the stages of stimulation, organization and interpretation-evaluation,
this leads us to another stage called memory. It is storage of both perception and interpretation-
evaluation that are kept according to scripts and schemas Events or experiences is not the
objective of recollection but is more likely heavily influenced by individual’s preconceptions and
individual’s schemata.
5. Recall
After some time, the memories that are stored individuals want to recall certain
information. Recall stage reconstruct what individual heard in a way that are meaningful. Recall
information that consistent with schemas. However failure to do so, it is inconsistent with
schemas. Recall information drastically contradicts one’s schema because it forces individual to
think or even rethink.

Assessment and Tests

There are some scales and self-report inventories we can use to assess the perception and
some behaviors can also use as a measure of perception. There are several test use in Pakistan for
example TAT Thematic Apperception Test it is projective test and used to assess the individuals
perception of interpersonal relationships. Bender Gestalt Test is a psychological assessment
instrument used to evaluate visual motor functioning and visual perception skills in both
children’s and adults. Picture completion (based on subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence
Scale).This is a test of perceptual discrimination in which the individual must identify the most
important missing elements in each of a series of sketched figure. The test is a good predictor of
driving performance among individuals who have brain injuries.
Visual perception Assessment
 Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration- 4th Edition (VMI-4)
 Test of Gross Motor Development- 2nd Edition (TGMD-2)
 Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test (BVMGT)
 Marianne Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception (DTVP)
 Developmental Test of Visual Perception- 2 (DTVP-2)
 Motor-Free Perceptual Test- Revised (MVPT-R)
Auditory perception Assessment
 Goldman-Fristoe-Woodcock Test of Auditory Discrimination (G-F-WTAD)
 Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Test (LACT)
 Test of Auditory Perceptual Skills- Revised (TAPS-R)
 Wepman Test of Auditory Discrimination, 2nd Edition (ADT-2)
Comprehensive measures of perceptual assessment
 Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency
 Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitudes- Fourth Edition (DTLA-4)
 Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA)