Sensory Snapshot: Reading a Book While Listening to Music
Background:
In our conscious hours, we are almost constantly bombarded by sensory stimuli. Sometimes it’s on purpose—many of us seek good music, beautiful art, and fantastic food—but most of the time, external stimuli find their way into our brain whether we want it to or not (and for important evolutionary reasons critical to our survival). We now know that the process of converting external sensory stimuli into an electrical signal that our brain interprets is known as sensory transduction. Although this is an immensely complicated neural process, we do it effortlessly, and rarely (if ever) give thought to how we actually accomplish this amazing feat…until now!
Assignment:
I would like you to describe in detail (and in your own words) what is happening at the level of your primary sensory receptors, neural pathways and brain (be sure to include specific brain regions) when you’re reading a book while listening to music. Your description should be as detailed as possible, but you do not need to go into further detail than what was covered in lecture and your assigned textbook readings. You don’t need to include an introduction or conclusion, but your paper should have a logical flow of ideas. Your audience for this assignment is a physiological psychology student who may be familiar with some of these concepts but is not an expert in the field. The purpose of this assignment is to 1) review visual and auditory transduction 2) develop an appreciation for the complexity of seemingly “automatic” sensory processes and 3) improve your writing.
You will be evaluated on the following criteria (see grading rubric for more details):
Accuracy and quality of analysis
Understanding of scientific concepts and supporting evidence of those concepts
Clarity of explanations and organization of ideas
Mechanics (e.g., spelling, grammar)
Audience
Physiological Psychology: "Sensory Snapshot"
Author’s Name
Institution of Affiliation
Course Name
Instructor’s Name
Date
Physiological Psychology: "Sensory Snapshot"
Reading a book while listening to music involves several brain levels, like sensory receptors, where the brain can integrate the information from the two sources, developing a multisensory experience. Every receptor transmits an unlike sensory modality assimilating into a single perceptual frame. Whenever a person reads a book while listening to a different type of music, various processes occur at the levels of primary sensory receptors, neural pathways, and the brain. Reading involves the receptors of vision because the reader cannot read something they do not see. The retinal, can grip dissimilar light frequencies. Energy absorbed in the form of cis-retinal is transformed into trans-retinal (Marzvanyan & Alhawaj, 2022). Signal transduction then comprises transducing, a multisubunit protein that plays a crucial role in igniting exchange from GDP to GTP, causing the discharge of the alpha subunit.
When a sensory receptor detects sensory information, it causes a sensation. For instance, the light entering a person's eye is responsible for causing chemical changes in the cells lining the back. Furthermore, a person can get messages offered under the threshold for alertness. Stimulus stretches a physiological onset whenever it is solid enough to motivate sensory receptors and propel nerve instincts to the brain.
On the other hand, when a person listens to music (sound), various events occur in a specific order. The sound wave moves to the ear, causing the tympanic membrane to vibrate. The energy changes from mechanical to stapes, malleus, and incus. Stapes are organized near the oval window and magnify the mechanical energy to the cochlea, a structure full of perilymph liquid. The cochlea has three layers: scala media, vestibule, and tympani.
Additionally, a hair cell consists of two hair cells: the inner and outer hair cells, each essential for different purposes. For instance, the inner one plays a significant role in conveying info to the auditory nerve. In contrast, outer cells magnify low sound levels arriving at the cochlea. The inner cells are attached to the tectorial membranes that bend against the undertaking of the cochlear duct fluids and membranes. The stereocilia on the hair cells twist to the longer cilia, causing the voltage-gated calcium channels and ion bending toward the longest cilia to open, increasing ion influx. (Marzvanyan & Alhawaj, 2022). As a result, depolarization occurs. The depolarization enables the neurotransmitters to release an auditory nerve in the post snaps, producing nerve impulses propagating from the hair cells’ stereocilia to the nervous system.
More importantly, the auditory and visual systems function differently to inform and direct the body's external a...