Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 4AM, Day 1) – Neuroscience of the Senses

Posted by hallep on Monday, July 11, 2016 in Grade 5, Grade 6, SAVY.

After getting to know each other, our neuroscientists-in-training spent their first day delving into the world of sensation. We started out with a discussion of how our senses are necessary for surviving and thriving in our environment. Using two videos, we explored how perception differs from sensation. While our sensory systems take in a lot of information at once, we determined that we only perceive certain aspects of this information. Take a look at the videos below to see some impressive examples of how we may not perceive things as perfectly as we might imagine!

The students then worked as groups to design their own experiments to test how our sensory systems adapt. We determined that adapting our hands in cold or warm water altered our subsequent perception of the temperature of lukewarm water. Sticking with this idea of adapting our senses, we shifted over to the visual system where we explored what happens when your visual system adapts to colors. At this point we discussed how cone cells in the retina are used to detect color, and discussed when happens when these cells adapt to colors in a presented image. You should take a look for yourself with the video below!

Perception Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY
Perception Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWSxSQsspiQ
Adapting Cones Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P8q_dCU3RI