Characterization of sensations, types and properties of sensations. What types of sensations exist

Closely related. And one and the other is the so-called sensual reflection of objective reality, which exists independently of consciousness and due to its impact on the senses: this is their unity. But perception - awareness of the sensory given object or phenomenon; in perception, the world of people, things, phenomena, performed for us of a certain meaning and involved in diverse relationships, usually spreads before us. These relationships create meaningful situations, of which we are witnesses and participants. Sensation the same is a reflection of a separate sensory quality or undifferentiated and unremarked impressions of the environment. In this latter case, sensations and perceptions differ as two different forms or two different relations of consciousness to objective reality. Sensations and perceptions are thus one and different. They comprise: sensory-perceptual level of mental reflection. At the sensory-perceptual level, we are talking about those images that arise with the direct impact of objects and phenomena on the senses.

The concept of sensations

The main source of our knowledge about the outside world and about our own bodies are sensations. They constitute the main channels through which information about the phenomena of the external world and about the states of the body reaches the brain, giving a person the opportunity to navigate in the environment and in his body. If these channels were closed and the senses did not bring the necessary information, no conscious life would be possible. There are known facts that a person deprived of a constant source of information falls into a sleepy state. Such cases: take place when a person suddenly loses sight, hearing, smell and when his conscious sensations are limited by any pathological process. A result close to this is achieved when a person is placed for some time in a light and soundproof chamber that isolates him from external influences. This condition first causes sleep, and then becomes intolerable to the subjects.

Numerous observations have shown that a violation of the flow of information in early childhood, associated with deafness and blindness, causes sharp delays in mental development. If children born blindly deaf or deprived of hearing and vision at an early age are not taught special techniques that compensate for these defects through touch, their mental development will become impossible and they will not develop independently.

As will be described below, the high specialization of various sensory organs is based not only on the structural features of the peripheral part of the analyzer - “receptors”, but also on the highest specialization of neurons that are part of the central nervous apparatus, to which signals perceived by the peripheral senses reach.

The reflex nature of sensations

So, sensations are the initial source of all our knowledge of the world. The objects and phenomena of reality that affect our senses are called stimuli, and the effects of stimuli on the senses are called annoyance. Irritation, in turn, causes excitation in the nervous tissue. A sensation arises as a reaction of the nervous system to a particular stimulus and, like any psychic phenomenon, has a reflex character.

The physiological mechanism of sensation is the activity of special nerve devices called.

Each analyzer consists of three parts:

the peripheral department, called the receptor (the receptor is the receptive part of the analyzer, its main function is the transformation of external energy into the nervous process);
afferent or sensory nerves (centripetal), conducting excitation in the nerve centers (central section of the analyzer);
cortical sections of the analyzer, in which the processing of nerve impulses coming from the peripheral sections occurs.

The cortical part of each analyzer includes a region representing a projection of the periphery in the cerebral cortex, since certain sections of the cortical cells correspond to certain peripheral cells (receptors). For the sensation to arise, the work of the entire analyzer as a whole is necessary. The analyzer is not a passive energy receiver. This is an organ that reflexively changes under the influence of stimuli.

Physiological studies show that sensation is not at all a passive process; it always includes motor components. Thus, observations with a microscope of a skin area, conducted by the American psychologist D. Neff, made it possible to verify that when irritated with a needle, the moment of sensation is accompanied by reflex motor reactions of this skin area. Subsequently, numerous studies have found that each sensation includes movement, sometimes in the form of a vegetative reaction (vasoconstriction, skin-galvanic reflex), sometimes in the form of muscle reactions (eye rotation, neck muscle tension, arm motor reactions, etc. .). Thus, sensations are not at all passive processes - they are active. The indication of the active nature of all these processes is the reflex theory of sensations.

Classification of sensations

It has long been customary to distinguish between five main types (modalities) of sensations: sense of smell, taste, touch, sight and hearing. This classification of sensations by basic modalities is correct, although not exhaustive. A.R. Luria believes that the classification of sensations can be carried out according to at least two basic principles - systematic and genetic (in other words, by the principle of modality, on the one hand, and by the principle of complexity or the level of their construction, on the other).

Systematic classification of sensations

Highlighting the largest and most significant groups of sensations, they can be divided into three main types; interoceptive, proprioceptive and exterocentive sensations. The former combine signals reaching us from the internal environment of the body; the second provide information on the position of the body in space and on the position of the musculoskeletal system, provide regulation of our movements; finally, others provide signals from the outside world and form the basis for our conscious behavior. Consider the main types of sensations separately.

Interoceptive sensations

Interoceptive sensations, signaling the state of internal processes of the body, bring to the brain irritation from the walls of the stomach and intestines, heart and circulatory system and other internal organs. This is the most ancient and most elementary group of sensations. Interoceptive sensations are among the least conscious and most diffuse forms of sensations and always maintain their proximity to emotional states.

Proprioceptive sensations

Proprioceptive sensations provide signals about the position of the body in space and constitute the afferent basis of human movements, playing a decisive role in their regulation. The peripheral receptors of proprioceptive sensitivity are located in the muscles and joints (tendons, ligaments) and have the form of special nerve cells (Pacchini bodies). The excitations arising in these bodies reflect the sensations that occur when the muscles are stretched and the joints change position. In modern physiology and psychophysiology, the role of proprioception as an afferent basis of movements in animals was studied in detail by A. A. Orbeli, P. K. Anokhin, and in humans - N. A. Bernshtein. The described group of sensations includes a specific type of sensitivity called a sense of balance, or static sensation. Their peripheral receptors are located in the semicircular canals of the inner ear.

Exteroreceotive sensations

The third and largest group of sensations are exteroreceotive sensations. They bring information to the person from the outside world and are the main group of sensations connecting the person with the environment. It is customary to conditionally divide the entire group of xxteroceptive sensations into two subgroups: contact and distant sensations.

Contact sensations are caused by exposure directly to the surface of the body and the corresponding perceived organ. Examples of contact sensation are taste and touch.

Distant sensations are caused by stimuli acting on the senses at a distance. Such sensations include the sense of smell and, especially, hearing and vision.

Genetic classification of sensations

Genetic classification allows us to distinguish two types of sensitivity:

protopathic (more primitive, affective, less differentiated and localized), which include organic feelings (hunger; thirst, etc.);
epicritical (more subtly differentiating, objective and rational), to which the main human senses are referred.

Epicritical sensitivity is younger genetically, and it controls protopathic sensitivity.

General properties of sensations

Different types of sensations are characterized not only by specificity, but also by properties common to them. These properties include: quality, intensity, duration and spatial localization.

Quality - this is the main feature of this sensation, distinguishing it from other types of sensations and varying within this type of sensations. The qualitative variety of sensations reflects the infinite variety of forms of motion of matter.

Intensity sensation is its quantitative characteristic and is determined by the strength of the active stimulus and the functional state of the receptor.

Duration sensation is its temporal characteristic. It is also determined by the functional state of the sensory organ, but mainly by the duration of the stimulus and its intensity.

When the stimulus acts on the sensory organ, sensation does not immediately arise, but after some time - the so-called latent (hidden) period of sensation. The latent period of various types of sensations varies: for example, for tactile sensations it is 130 ms; for pain - 370, and for taste - only 50 ms.

Just as a sensation does not occur simultaneously with the onset of the stimulus, it does not disappear simultaneously with the cessation of its action. The presence of positive sequential images explains why we do not notice breaks between successive frames of the movie: they are filled with traces of the frames that were in effect before - sequential images from them. The sequential image changes in time, the positive image is replaced by the negative. With colored light sources, the sequential image goes into an additional color.

Feel - the simplest mental process, consisting in the reflection of the individual properties of objects and phenomena with their direct impact on the corresponding receptors

Receptors - These are sensitive nerve formations that perceive the effects of the external or internal environment and encode it in the form of a set of electrical signals. These signals then enter the brain, which decrypts them. This process accompanies the emergence of the simplest mental phenomena - sensations.

Some of the human receptors are combined into more complex formations - sensory organs. A person has an organ of vision - an eye, an organ of hearing - an ear, an organ of balance - a vestibular apparatus, an organ of smell - a nose, an organ of taste - a tongue. At the same time, some receptors do not combine into one organ, but are scattered across the surface of the whole body. These are receptors for temperature, pain and tactile sensitivity. A large number of receptors are located inside the body: pressure receptors, chemical senses, etc. For example, receptors that are sensitive to blood glucose provide a feeling of hunger. Receptors and sensory organs are the only channels through which the brain can receive information for further processing.

All receptors can be divided into distant that can perceive irritation at a distance (visual, auditory, olfactory) and contact (taste, tactile, pain).

Analyzer - the material basis of sensations

Sensations are the product of activity analyzers person. An analyzer is an interconnected complex of nerve formations that receives signals, transforms them, sets up the receptor apparatus, transfers information to nerve centers, processes it and decrypts it. I.P. Pavlov believed that the analyzer consists of three elements: sensory organ , pathway and cortical department . According to modern concepts, the analyzer includes at least five departments: receptor, conductor, tuner, filtering unit, and analysis unit. Since the conductor section is essentially just an electric cable that conducts electrical impulses, the four departments of the analyzer play the most important role. The feedback system allows you to make adjustments to the work of the receptor department when changing external conditions (for example, fine-tuning the analyzer with different strengths).

Thresholds of sensations

In psychology, there are several concepts of the threshold of sensitivity.

Lower absolute sensitivity threshold defined as the smallest stimulus that can cause sensation.

Human receptors are very sensitive to an adequate stimulus. So, for example, the lower visual threshold is only 2-4 quanta of light, and the olfactory is 6 molecules of odorous substance.

Irritants with a power less than threshold do not cause sensations. They're called subliminal and are not realized, however, they can penetrate the subconscious, determining the behavior of a person, as well as forming the basis of his dreams, intuition, unconscious drives.A study of psychologists shows that a person’s subconscious mind can respond to very weak or very short stimuli that are not perceived by the consciousness.

Upper Absolute Sensitivity Threshold changes the very nature of the sensations (most often - to pain). For example, with a gradual increase in water temperature, a person begins to perceive not heat, but already pain. The same thing happens with a strong sound and or pressure on the skin.

Relative threshold (threshold of discrimination) is called the minimum change in the intensity of the stimulus, causing changes in sensations. According to the Bouguer-Weber law, the relative threshold of sensations is constant when measured as a percentage of the initial value of irritation.

Bouguer-Weber Law: “The threshold of discrimination for each analyzer has

constant relative value ":

DI / I = const, where I is the strength of the stimulus

Classificationsensations

1. Exteroreceptive sensations reflect the properties of objects and phenomena of the external environment ("five senses"). These include visual, auditory, taste, temperature and tactile sensations. In fact, there are more than five receptors that provide these sensations, and the so-called “sixth sense” has nothing to do with it. For example, visual sensations occur when excited wand (“Twilight, black and white vision”) and cones ("Daytime, color vision"). Thermal sensations in a person arise with separate excitation cold and heat receptors. Tactile sensations reflect the effect on the surface of the body, and they occur when excited or sensitive receptor touch in the upper layer of the skin, or with a stronger effect on pressure receptors in the deeper layers of the skin.

2. Interoreceptive sensations reflect the state of internal organs. They include a sensation of pain, hunger, thirst, nausea, suffocation, etc. Pain sensations signal damage and irritation of the human organs, are a kind of manifestation of the protective functions of the body. The intensity of pain is different, reaching in some cases a lot of power, which can even lead to a shock condition.

3. Proprioceptive sensations (musculoskeletal). These are sensations that reflect the position and movements of our body. With the help of musculoskeletal sensations, a person receives information about the position of the body in space, about the relative position of all its parts, about the movement of the body and its parts, about the contraction, stretching and relaxation of muscles, the condition of joints and ligaments, etc. Musculoskeletal sensations are complex. Simultaneous irritation of receptors of various quality gives a peculiar quality of sensation: irritation of the receptor endings in the muscles creates a sensation of muscular tonicity when performing movement; sensations of muscle tension and effort are associated with irritation of the nerve endings of the tendons; irritation of the receptors of the articular surfaces gives a sense of direction, shape and speed of movement. To the same group of sensations, many authors include sensations of equilibrium and acceleration, which arise as a result of excitation of receptors of the vestibular analyzer.

Sensation Properties

Sensations have certain properties:

·adaptation,

·contrast,

Thresholds of sensations

Sensitization

· Sequential images.

PSYCHOLOGY OF SENSATIONS.

Sensation - This is the simplest mental process, consisting in the reflection of the individual properties of objects and phenomena of the material world, as well as the internal conditions of the body with the direct impact of material stimuli on the corresponding receptors.

Reflection - the general property of matter, which consists in the ability of objects to reproduce with varying degrees of adequacy the signs, structural characteristics and relationships of other objects.

Receptor - a specialized organic device located on the surface of the body or inside it and designed to perceive various in nature stimuli: physical, chemical, mechanical, etc., and their conversion into nerve electrical impulses.

Sensation is that initial area of \u200b\u200bthe sphere of mental cognitive processes, which is located at the border that sharply separates mental and dopsychic phenomena. Mental cognitive processes - dynamically changing mental phenomena, in their totality providing knowledge as a process and as a result.

Psychologists have traditionally used the term “sensation” to mean an elementary perceptual image and the mechanism of its construction. Psychology speaks of sensation in the case when a person is aware that a signal has arrived at his senses. Any change in the environment that is accessible to vision, hearing and other modalities is psychologically presented in the form of sensation. Sensation is the primary conscious representation of a formless and non-objective fragment of reality of a certain modality: color, light, sound, indefinite touch. In the field of taste and smell, the difference between sensation and perception is much smaller, and sometimes it actually is not. If we can’t determine the taste of the product (sugar, honey), then we are talking only about sensations. If smells are not identified with their subject sources, then they are presented only in the form of sensations. Pain signals are almost always presented as sensations, since only a person with a very rich imagination can "build" an image of pain.

The role of sensations in human life is extremely great, since they are the source of our knowledge about the world and about ourselves. We learn about the wealth of the world, about sounds and colors, smells and temperatures, sizes and much more thanks to our senses. Using the senses, the human body in the form of sensations receives a variety of information about the state of the external and internal environment.

internal environment.

The sensory organs receive, select, accumulate information and transmit it to the brain for processing. As a result, an adequate reflection of the surrounding world and the state of the organism itself arises. On this basis, nerve impulses are formed that arrive at the executive organs responsible for regulating body temperature, the digestive organs, the organs of motion, the endocrine glands, for adjusting the sensory organs themselves, etc.

The sense organs are the only channels through which the external world "penetrates" the human mind. The senses give a person the opportunity to navigate in the world. If a person lost all sense organs, he would not know what was happening around him, could not communicate with people around him, get food, and avoid danger.

PHYSIOLOGICAL BASES OF SENSATIONS. ANALYZER CONCEPT

All sentient beings with a nervous system have the ability to feel. As for the conscious sensations (regarding the source and quality of occurrence of which is given a report), only a person has them. In the evolution of living beings, sensations arose on the basis of the primary irritability which is a property of living matter to respond to biologically significant environmental influences by changing its internal state and external behavior.

In humans, sensations in their quality and diversity reflect the diversity of environmental properties that are significant to them. Sense organs, or human analyzers, from the moment of birth are adapted for the perception and processing of various types of energy in the form of stimuli-stimuli (physical, mechanical, chemical and others).

A sensation arises as a reaction of the nervous system to a particular stimulus and has, like any psychic phenomenon, a reflex character. Reaction - the body's response to a specific stimulus.

The physiological basis of sensation is the nervous process that occurs when the stimulus acts on an analyzer adequate to it. Analyzer - a concept (according to Pavlov), denoting a combination of afferent and efferent nerve structures involved in the perception, processing and response to stimuli.

Efferent - This is a process directed from the inside out, from the central nervous system to the periphery of the body.

Afferent - a concept that characterizes the course of the process of nervous excitation along the nervous system in the direction from the periphery of the body to the brain.

The analyzer consists of three parts:

1. The peripheral department (or receptor), which is a special transformer of external energy into the nervous process. There are two types of receptors: contact receptors receptors that transmit irritation in direct contact with objects acting on them, and distantreceptors - receptors that respond to irritations emanating from a distant object.

Afferent (centripetal) and efferent (centrifugal) nerves, the pathways connecting the peripheral part of the analyzer with the central one.

3. Subcortical and cortical departments (cerebral end) of the analyzer, where there is a processing of nerve impulses coming from the peripheral departments.

The core of the analyzer is located in the cortical part of each analyzer, i.e. the central part, where the bulk of the receptor cells is concentrated, and the periphery, consisting of scattered cellular elements, which in one or another quantity are located in different areas of the cortex.

The nuclear part of the analyzer consists of a large mass of cells that are located in the area of \u200b\u200bthe cerebral cortex where the centripetal nerves from the receptor enter.

Scattered (peripheral) elements

this analyzer is included in areas adjacent to the cores of other analyzers. This ensures the participation in a separate act of sensing a large part of the entire cerebral cortex. The analyzer core performs the function of fine analysis and synthesis. The scattered elements are associated with a coarse analysis function. Certain sections of the cortical cells correspond to certain cells of the peripheral parts of the analyzer.

For the sensation to arise, the work of the entire analyzer as a whole is necessary. The action of the stimulus on the receptor causes the appearance of irritation. The beginning of this irritation is the conversion of external energy into the nervous process that is produced by the receptor. From the receptor, this process along the centripetal nerve reaches the nuclear part of the analyzer located in the spinal cord or brain. When the excitation reaches the cortical cells of the analyzer, we feel the quality of the stimuli, and after that there is an organism response to irritation.

If the signal is caused by a stimulus that threatens to cause damage to the body, or is addressed to the autonomic nervous system, it is very likely that it will immediately cause a reflex emanating from the spinal cord or other lower center, and this will happen before we realize this effect (reflex is an automatic response " body reaction to the action of any internal or external stimulus).

If the signal continues its path along the spinal cord, then it goes along two different paths: one leads to the GM cortex through the thalamus, and the other, more diffuse, passes through reticular formation filter, which keeps the cortex awake and decides whether the signal transmitted directly is important enough for the cortex to take care of. If the signal is considered important, a complex process will begin that will lead to a sensation in the literal sense of the word. This process involves a change in the activity of many thousands of cortical neurons, which will have to structure and organize a sensory signal to give

it makes sense. (Sensory - associated with the work of the senses).

First of all, the attention of the cerebral cortex to the stimulus will now entail a series of movements of the eyes, head, or trunk. This will allow you to more deeply and in detail familiarize yourself with the information coming from the sensory organ, the primary source of this signal, and also, possibly, connect other sensory organs. As new information arrives, they will be associated with traces of similar events preserved in memory.

Between the receptor and the brain there is not only a direct (centripetal), but also a reverse (centrifugal) connection .

Thus, sensation is not only the result of a centripetal process, it is based on a complete and complex reflex act, subordinate in its formation and flow to the general laws of reflex activity. In this case, the analyzer forms the initial and most important part of the entire path of nervous processes, or the reflex arc.

CLASSIFICATION OF SENSATIONS

The classification of sensations proceeds from the properties of the stimuli that cause them, and the receptors that these stimuli act on. So, by the nature of reflection and the location of sensory receptors divided into three groups:

1 Interoceptive sensationshaving receptors located in internal organs and body tissues and reflecting the state of internal organs. Signals from internal organs are not noticeable in most cases, with the exception of painful symptoms. The information of interoreceptors informs the brain about the conditions of the internal environment of the body, such as the presence of biologically useful or harmful substances in it, body temperature, the chemical composition of the fluids present in it, pressure, and much more.

2. Proprioceptive sensationswhose receptors are located in the ligaments and muscles, they provide information about the movement and position of our body. A subclass of proprioception, which is a sensitivity to movement, is called kinesthesia, and the corresponding receptors are called kinesthetic or kinesthetic.

3. Exteroceptive sensations, reflecting the properties of objects and environmental phenomena and having receptors on the surface of the body. Exteroceptors can be divided into two groups: contact and distant. Contact receptors transmit irritation in direct contact with objects acting on them; such are the tactile, taste buds. Distant receptors respond to stimuli emanating from a distant object; they are visual, auditory, olfactory receptors.

From the point of view of the data of modern science, the accepted separation of sensations into external (exteroceptors) and internal (interoceptors) is not enough. Some types of sensations can be considered external-internal. These include, for example, temperature, pain, taste, vibration, muscle-joint and static-dynamic.

By belonging to the sensory organs are divided into taste, visual, olfactory, tactile, auditory.

Touch(or skin sensitivity) is the most widely presented type of sensitivity. The composition of touch, along with tactile sensations (sensations of touch: pressure, pain), includes an independent type of sensations - temperature sensations (heat and cold). They are a function of a special temperature analyzer. Temperature sensations are not only part of the sense of touch, but also have an independent, more general meaning for the entire process of thermoregulation and heat transfer between the body and the environment.

Unlike other exteroreceptors localized in narrowly limited surface areas of the predominantly cephalic end of the body, the receptors of the dermo-mechanical analyzer, like other skin receptors, are located over the entire surface of the body, in areas bordering the external environment. However, the specialization of skin receptors has still not been accurately determined. It is unclear whether receptors exist solely for the perception of a single effect, which generate differentiated sensations of pressure, pain, cold or warmth, or whether the quality of the sensation arises may vary depending on the specificity of the property acting on it.

The function of tactile receptors, like all others, is to accept the process of irritation and the transformation of its energy into the corresponding nervous process. Irritation of nerve receptors is the process of mechanical contact of the stimulus with the area of \u200b\u200bthe skin surface in which this receptor is located. With a significant intensity of the action of the stimulus, contact becomes pressure. With the relative movement of the stimulus and the skin surface, contact and pressure are carried out under changing conditions of mechanical friction. Here the irritation is carried out not by stationary, but by flowing, changing contact.

Studies show that sensations of touch or pressure arise only if a mechanical irritant causes deformation of the skin surface. Under the action of pressure on a skin area of \u200b\u200bvery small sizes, the greatest deformation occurs precisely at the site of direct application of the stimulus. If the pressure is applied to a sufficiently large surface, then it is distributed unevenly - its lowest intensity is felt in the depressed parts of the surface, and the greatest - on the edges of the depressed area. In the experiment of G. Meisner it was shown that when a hand is immersed in water or mercury, the temperature of which is approximately equal to the temperature of the hand, pressure is felt only at the boundary of the surface immersed in the liquid, i.e. exactly where the curvature of this surface and its deformation are most significant.

The intensity of pressure sensation depends on the speed at which deformation of the skin surface occurs: the strength of sensation is greater, the faster the deformation occurs.

Sense of smell - a type of sensitivity that generates specific sensations of smell. This is one of the most ancient and vital sensations. Anatomically, the organ of smell is located in most living things in the most favorable place - in front, in the prominent part of the body. The path from the olfactory receptors to those brain structures where the impulses received from them are received and processed is the shortest. Nerve fibers departing from the olfactory receptors, directly without intermediate switching, enter the brain.

The part of the brain called olfactory is also the most ancient; the higher the living creature is at the lower stage of the evolutionary ladder, the more space it occupies in the mass of the brain. In many ways, the sense of smell is the most mysterious. Many have noticed that although a smell helps to revive an event, it is almost impossible to recall the smell itself, just as we mentally restore an image or sound. The smell therefore serves memory so well that the mechanism of smell is closely connected with that part of the brain that controls memory and emotions, although we do not know exactly how this connection is structured and acts.

Taste have four main modalities: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. All other tastes are a variety of combinations of these four main. Modality is a qualitative characteristic of sensations arising under the influence of certain stimuli and reflecting the properties of objective reality in a specifically encoded form.

Smell and taste are called chemical senses because their receptors respond to molecular signals. When molecules dissolved in a liquid, such as saliva, stimulate the taste buds of the tongue, we taste. When molecules in the air enter the olfactory receptors in the nose, we smell. Although in humans and most animals, taste and smell, having developed from a common chemical feeling, have become independent, they remain interconnected. In some cases, for example, inhaling the smell of chloroform, it seems to us that we smell it, but in fact it tastes.

On the other hand, what we call the taste of a substance often turns out to be its smell. If you close your eyes and pinch your nose, you may not be able to distinguish potatoes from an apple or wine from coffee. By holding your nose, you’ll lose 80 percent of the ability to smell the aromas of most foods. That is why people who do not breathe nose (runny nose) have a bad taste of food.

Although our olfactory apparatus is surprisingly sensitive, humans and other primates smell much worse than most other animal species. Some scientists suggest that our distant ancestors lost their sense of smell when they climbed trees. Since visual acuity at that time was more important, the balance between different types of feelings was disturbed. During this process, the shape of the nose changed and the size of the organ of smell decreased. It became less subtle and did not recover even when the ancestors of man descended from the trees.

However, in many animal species, the sense of smell is still one of the main means of communication. Probably for humans, odors are more important than previously thought.

Substances have a smell only if they are volatile, that is, they easily pass from a solid or liquid state to a gaseous state. However, the strength of the odor is not determined by one volatility: some less volatile substances, such as those contained in pepper, smell stronger than more volatile substances, such as alcohol. Salt and sugar are almost odorless, since their molecules are so tightly linked to each other by electrostatic forces that they almost do not: evaporate.

Although we detect odors very well, we do not recognize them well in the absence of visual cues. This is the property of our perception mechanism.

Smell and smell are phenomena that are much more complex and affect our lives to a greater extent than we thought until recently, and it seems that scientists dealing with these problems are on the verge of many startling discoveries.

Visual sensations - the type of sensations caused by exposure to the visual system of electromagnetic waves in the range from 380 to 780 billionths of a meter. This range occupies only part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Waves within this range and varying in length give rise to sensations of different colors. The apparatus of vision is the eye. Light waves reflected by an object are refracted through the lens of the eye and are formed on the retina as an image - an image. Visual sensations are divided into:

Achromatic, reflecting the transition from darkness to light (from black to white) through a mass of shades of gray;

Chromatic, reflecting the color scheme with numerous shades and color transitions - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue, purple.

The emotional impact of color is associated with its physiological, psychological and social meaning.

Auditory sensations are the result of mechanical action on receptors of sound waves with an oscillation frequency of 16 to 20,000 Hz. Hertz is a physical unit by which the frequency of air oscillations per second is estimated, numerically equal to one oscillation per second. Fluctuations in air pressure, following with a certain frequency and characterized by periodic occurrences of high and low pressure areas, are perceived by us as sounds of a certain height and volume. The higher the frequency of air pressure fluctuations, the higher the sound we perceive.

there are 3 types of sound sensations:

Noises and other sounds (arising in nature and in an artificial environment);

Speech (related to communication and mass media);

Musical (artificially created by man for artificial experiences).

In these types of sensations, the auditory analyzer distinguishes four qualities of sound:

Strength (volume, estimated in decibels);

Height (high and low oscillation frequency per unit time);

Timbre (originality of coloring of sound - speech and music);

Duration (playing time plus tempo rhythmic pattern).

MAIN PROPERTIES OF SENSATIONS.

Different types of sensations are characterized not only by specificity, but also by properties common to them. These properties include:

Spatial localization - mapping the place of the stimulus in space. For example, contact sensations (tactile, painful, tasteful) relate to that part of the body that is affected by the stimulus. Moreover, the localization of pain is more "diffuse" and less accurate than tactile. Spatial threshold- the minimum size of a barely perceptible stimulus, as well as the minimum distance between stimuli, when this distance is still felt.

Sensation intensity - a quantitative characteristic that reflects the subjective size of the sensation and is determined by the strength of the stimulus and the functional state of the analyzer.

Emotional tone of feelings - the quality of the sensation, manifested in its ability to evoke certain positive or negative emotions.

Sensation speed (or time threshold) - the minimum time required to reflect external influences.

Differentiation, subtlety of sensations - an indicator of distinctive sensitivity, the ability to distinguish between two or more stimuli.

Adequacy, accuracy of sensation - correspondence of the sensation to the characteristics of the stimulus.

Quality (sensations of this modality) - this is the main feature of this sensation, distinguishing it from other types of sensation and varying within this type of sensation (this modality). So, auditory sensations differ in height, timbre, volume; visual - by saturation, color tone, etc. The qualitative variety of sensations reflects the infinite variety of forms of motion of matter.

Sensitivity Stability - the duration of maintaining the desired intensity of sensations.

Sensation duration - its temporal characteristic. It is also determined by the functional state of the sensory organ, but mainly by the duration of the stimulus and its intensity. The latent period for different types of sensations varies: for tactile sensations, for example, it is 130 milliseconds, for pain - 370 milliseconds. The taste sensation arises after 50 milliseconds after applying a chemical irritant to the surface of the tongue.

Just as a sensation does not occur simultaneously with the onset of the stimulus, it does not disappear simultaneously with the termination of the latter. This inertia of sensations manifests itself in the so-called aftereffect.

The visual sensation has some inertia and does not disappear immediately after the stimulus causing it ceases to act. The trace from the stimulus remains in the form consistent image. Distinguish between positive and negative sequential images. A positive, consistent image in lightness and color corresponds to the initial irritation. The principle of cinema is based on the inertia of vision, on maintaining a visual impression for some period of time in the form of a positive sequential image. The sequential image changes in time, while the positive image is replaced by the negative. With colored light sources, a sequential image transitions to an additional color.

SENSITIVITY AND ITS MEASUREMENT

The various sensory organs, which give us information about the state of the external world surrounding us, may be more or less sensitive to the phenomena they display, that is, they can display these phenomena with greater or lesser accuracy. In order for a sensation to arise as a result of the action of the stimulus on the senses, it is necessary that the stimulus causing it reaches a certain value. This value is called the lower absolute threshold of sensitivity. Lower absolute sensitivity threshold - minimum strength of the stimulus, causing a barely noticeable sensation. This is the threshold of conscious recognition of the stimulus.

However, there is a lower threshold - physiological. This threshold reflects the sensitivity limit of each receptor beyond which excitation can no longer ensue. This threshold is genetically determined and can only change depending on age or other physiological factors. The threshold of perception (conscious recognition) is much less stable and depends, among other things, on the level of wakefulness of the brain, on the attention of the brain to the signal that crossed the physiological threshold. Between these two thresholds there is a zone of sensitivity in which the excitation of receptors entails the transmission of a message, but it does not reach consciousness. Despite the fact that the environment at any time sends us thousands of all kinds of signals, we can catch only a small part of them.

At the same time, being unconscious, being below the lower threshold of sensitivity, these stimuli (subsensory) are able to influence the conscious sensations. With the help of such sensitivity, for example, our mood can change, in some cases they affect a person’s desires and interest in certain objects of reality.

Currently, there is a hypothesis that in the zone * under the level of consciousness - in the subthreshold zone - the signals perceived by the sensory organs are possibly processed by the lower centers of our brain. If this is the case, then every second there must be hundreds of signals that pass by our consciousness, but nevertheless are recorded at lower levels.

Such a hypothesis allows us to find an explanation for many controversial phenomena. Especially when it comes to perceptual protection, subthreshold and extrasensory perception, about the awareness of internal reality in conditions, for example, sensory isolation or in a state of meditation.

The fact that stimuli of lower strength (subthreshold) do not cause sensations is biologically feasible. The bark at every single moment from an infinite number of impulses perceives only vital ones, delaying all the others, including impulses from internal organs. It is impossible to imagine the life of an organism in which the cerebral cortex would equally perceive all impulses and provide reactions to them. This would lead the body to inevitable death. It is the cerebral cortex that "guards" the vital interests of the body and, increasing the threshold of its excitability, turns irrelevant impulses into subthreshold ones, thereby saving the body from unnecessary reactions.

And human emotions? This is the issue we decided to devote to today's article. Indeed, without these components we would not be people, but machines that do not live, but simply exist.

What are the senses?

As you know, a person learns all the information about the world through his own. These include the following:

eyes;
language;
leather.

Thanks to these organs, people feel and see the objects surrounding them, as well as hear sounds and taste. It should be noted that this is not a complete list. Although it is customary to call it the main one. So what are the feelings and sensations of a person whose function is not only the above, but also other organs? Consider the answer to this question in more detail.

Eyes

Sensations of vision, or rather color and light, are most numerous and diverse. Thanks to the presented body, people receive about 70% of environmental information. Scientists have found that the number of visual sensations (various qualities) of an adult, on average, reaches 35 thousand. It should also be noted that it is vision that plays a significant role in the perception of space. As for the sensation of color, it completely depends on the length of the light wave that irritates the retina, and the intensity on its amplitude or the so-called magnitude.

The ears

Hearing (tones and noises) gives a person about 20 thousand different states of consciousness. This sensation is caused by air waves that come from the sounding body. Its quality depends entirely on the magnitude of the wave, strength on amplitude, and timbre (or sound coloring) on \u200b\u200bform.

Nose

The sensations of smell are quite diverse, and they are very difficult to classify. They occur with irritation of the upper part of the nasal cavity, as well as the mucous membrane of the palate. This effect occurs due to the dissolution of the smallest odorous substances.

Language

Thanks to this organ, a person can distinguish between different tastes, namely sweet, salty, sour and bitter.

Leather

Tactile sensations break up into feelings of pressure, pain, temperature and so on. They occur during irritation of nerve endings located in the tissues, which have a special structure.

What kind of feelings does a person have? In addition to all of the above, people have feelings such as:

Static (the position of the body in space and a sense of its balance). This feeling occurs during irritation of the nerve endings that are located in the semicircular canals of the ear.
Muscular, articular and tendon. They are very difficult to observe, but they are in the nature of internal pressure, tension, and even sliding.
Organic or somatic. Such feelings include hunger, nausea, breathing, and so on.

What are the feelings and emotions?

Emotions and inner feelings of a person reflect his attitude to any event or situation in life. Moreover, the two named states are quite different from each other. So, emotions are a direct reaction to something. This happens on an animal level. As for the senses, this is a product of thinking, accumulated experience, experiences, etc.

What kind of feelings does a person have? It is rather difficult to answer clearly the question posed. After all, people have a lot of feelings and emotions. They give the person information about the needs, as well as feedback on what is happening. Thanks to this, people can understand what they are doing right and what are wrong. After realizing the feelings that have arisen, a person gives himself the right to any emotion, and thereby he begins to understand what is happening in reality.

The list of basic emotions and feelings

What are the feelings and emotions of a person? Listing them all is simply impossible. In this regard, we decided to name only a few. Moreover, they are all divided into three different groups.

Positive:

pleasure;
jubilation;
joy;
pride;
delight;
the trust;
confidence;
delight;
sympathy;
love (or affection);
love (sex drive for a partner);
respect;
gratitude (or appreciation);
tenderness;
complacency;
tenderness;
gloat;
bliss;
a sense of satisfied revenge;
a sense of self-satisfaction;
feeling of relief;
anticipation;
sense of security.

Negative:

Neutral:

surprise;
curiosity;
amazement;
calmly contemplative mood;
indifference.

Now you know what feelings a person has. Someone more, some less, but each of us at least once in our life experienced them on ourselves. Negative emotions that are ignored and not realized by us do not disappear just like that. After all, the body and soul are one, and if the latter suffers for a long time, the body takes on some part of its heavy burden. And it is not in vain that they say that all diseases are from nerves. Influence negative emotions on well-being and human health has long been a scientific fact. As for the positive feelings, the benefits of them are clear to everyone. Indeed, experiencing joy, happiness and other emotions, a person literally fixes in his memory the desired types of behavior (feelings of success, prosperity, trust in the world, people around him, etc.).

Neutral feelings also help people express their attitude to what they have seen, heard, and so on. By the way, such emotions can act as a springboard to further positive or negative manifestations.

Thus, by analyzing one’s behavior and attitude to events, a person can become better, worse or stay the same. It is these properties that distinguish humans from animals.

The world around us, its beauty, sounds, colors, smells, temperature, size and much more, we learn through the senses. Using the senses, the human body receives in the form of sensations a variety of information about the state of the external and internal environment.

FEELING is a simple mental process, which consists in reflecting the individual properties of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, as well as the internal conditions of the body with the direct action of stimuli on the corresponding receptors.

Sensory organs are irritated. It is necessary to distinguish between stimuli adequate for a particular sense organ and inadequate for it. Sensation is the primary process with which the knowledge of the world begins.

FEELING - cognitive mental process of reflection in the human psyche of individual properties and qualities of objects and phenomena with their direct impact on his senses.

The role of sensations in life and cognition of reality is very important, since they constitute the only source of our knowledge about the outside world and about ourselves.

The physiological basis of sensations. Sensation arises as a reaction of the nervous system to a particular stimulus. The physiological basis of sensation is the nervous process that occurs when the stimulus acts on an analyzer adequate to it.

The sensation is reflex; physiologically, it provides an analyzer system. The analyzer is a nervous apparatus that performs the function of analysis and synthesis of stimuli that came from the external and internal environment of the body.

ANALYZERS - These are the organs of the human body that analyze the surrounding reality and highlight those "or Other varieties of psychoenergy in it.

The analyzer concept was introduced by I.P. Pavlov. The analyzer consists of three parts:

The peripheral section - the receptor, turns a certain type of energy into a nervous process;

Afferent (centripetal) pathways that transmit the excitation that has arisen in the receptor in the centers of the nervous system located above, and efferent (centrifugal), through which impulses from the centers located above are transmitted to the lower levels;

Subcortical and cortical projective areas where the processing of nerve impulses from the peripheral regions occurs.

The analyzer is the initial and most important part of the entire path of nervous processes, or the reflex arc.

Reflex arc \u003d analyzer + effector,

An effector is a motor organ (a specific muscle) into which a nerve impulse enters from the central nervous system (brain). The interconnection of the elements of the reflex arc provides the basis for the orientation of a complex organism in the environment, the activity of the organism, depending on the conditions of its existence.

For sensation to arise, the work of the entire analyzer as a whole is necessary. The action of the stimulus on the receptor causes the appearance of irritation.

Classification and varieties of sensations. There are various classifications of the sensory organs and the body's sensitivity to stimuli entering the analyzers from the outside world or from the inside of the body.

Depending on the degree of contact of the senses with stimuli, sensitivity is distinguished between contact (tangent, taste, pain) and distant (visual, auditory, olfactory). Contact receptors transmit irritation in direct contact with objects that affect them; such are the tactile, taste buds. Distant receptors respond to irritation * that comes from a distant object; distant receptors are visual, auditory, olfactory.

Since sensations arise as a result of the action of a certain stimulus on the corresponding receptor, the properties of the stimuli that cause them and the receptors that are affected by these stimuli are taken into account in the classification of sensations.

For the placement of receptors in the body - on the surface, inside the body, in the muscles and tendons - sensations are distinguished:

Exteroceptive, reflecting properties of objects and phenomena of the external world (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory)

Interoceptive, containing information about the condition of internal organs (feeling of hunger, thirst, fatigue)

Proprioceptive, reflecting the movements of the organs of the body and the state of the body (kinesthetic and static).

According to the system of analyzers, there are such varieties of sensations: visual, auditory, tactile, painful, temperature, taste, olfactory, hunger and thirst, sexual, kinesthetic and static.

Each of these varieties of sensation has its own organ (analyzer), its own patterns of occurrence and function.

The subclass proprioception, which is a sensitivity to movement, is also called kinesthesia, and the corresponding receptors are called kinesthetic, or kinesthetic.

Independent sensations include temperature, which is the function of a special temperature analyzer that carries out thermoregulation and heat transfer of the body with the environment.

For example, the organ of visual sensations is the eye. The ear is the organ of perception of auditory sensations. Tactile, temperature and pain sensitivity are a function of organs located in the skin.

Tactile sensations provide knowledge about the degree of equality and relief of the surface of objects, which can be felt during their palpation.

Pain sensations signal a violation of the integrity of the tissue, which, of course, causes a protective reaction in a person.

Temperature sensation - a feeling of cold, warmth, it causes contact with objects that have a temperature higher or lower than body temperature.

An intermediate position between tactile and auditory sensations is occupied by vibrational sensations, signaling the vibration of the object. The organ of vibrational feeling has not yet been found.

The olfactory sensations signal the state of shelf life of the products for consumption, clean or polluted air.

The organ of taste sensation - special cones sensitive to chemical stimuli located on the tongue and palate.

Static or gravitational sensations reflect the position of our body in space - lying, standing, sitting, balance, falling.

Kinesthetic sensations reflect the movements and conditions of individual parts of the body - arms, legs, head, body.

Organic sensations signal such conditions of the body as hunger, thirst, well-being, fatigue, pain.

Sexual sensations signal the body's need for sexual discharge, which provides pleasure due to irritation of the so-called erogenous zones and sex in general.

From the point of view of the data of modern science, the separation of sensations into external (exteroceptors) and internal (interoceptors) is not enough. Some types of sensations can be considered externally internal. These include temperature, pain, taste, vibration, muscle and joint, genital and static-di and iamich n and.

General properties of sensations. Sensation is a form of reflection of adequate stimuli. However, various types of sensations are characterized not only by specificity, but also by properties common to them. These properties include quality, intensity, duration and spatial localization.

Quality is the main feature of a certain sensation, which distinguishes it from other types of sensations and varies within this type. So, auditory sensations differ in height, timbre, volume; visual - by saturation, color tone, and the like.

The intensity of sensations is its quantitative characteristic and is determined by the strength of the stimulus and the functional state of the receptor.

The duration of sensation is its temporal characteristic. it also determines the functional state of the sensory organ, but mainly the duration of the stimulus and its intensity. During the action of the stimulus on the sensory organ, the sensation arises not immediately, but after a while, which is called the latent (latent) period of sensation.

General patterns of sensations. General patterns of sensation are sensitivity thresholds, adaptation, interaction, sensitization, contrast, synesthesia.

Sensitivity. The sensitivity of the sensory organ is determined by the minimum stimulus, which in specific conditions becomes capable of causing a sensation. The minimum strength of the stimulus, causes a barely noticeable sensation, is called the lower absolute threshold of sensitivity.

Smaller irritants, the so-called subthreshold, do not cause sensations, and signals about them are not transmitted to the cerebral cortex.

The lower threshold of sensations determines the level of absolute sensitivity of this analyzer.

The absolute sensitivity of the analyzer is limited not only by the lower, but by the upper threshold of sensation.

The upper absolute threshold of sensitivity is the maximum strength of the stimulus, at which sensation adequate to a certain stimulus still arises. A further increase in the strength of the stimuli acting on our receptors causes only pain in them (for example, an ultra-loud sound, dazzling brightness).

The difference in sensitivity, or sensitivity to discrimination, is also inversely related to the value of the threshold of discrimination: that the threshold of discrimination is greater, the smaller the difference in sensitivity.

Adaptation. The sensitivity of the analyzers, the determined value of the absolute thresholds, is not constant and changes under the influence of a number of physiological and psychological conditions, among which the adaptation phenomenon occupies a special place.

Adaptation, or adaptation, is a change in the sensitivity of the senses under the influence of the stimulus.

There are three varieties of this phenomenon:

Adaptation as a continuous disappearance of sensation during the long-term action of the stimulus.

Adaptation as dulling sensation under the influence of a strong irritant. The two types of adaptation described can be combined with the term negative adaptation, since the sensitivity of the analyzers decreases as a result of it.

Adaptation as an increase in sensitivity under the influence of a weak irritant. This type of adaptation, inherent in some types of sensations, can be defined as positive adaptation.

The phenomenon of increasing the sensitivity of the analyzer to the stimulus under the influence of mindfulness, orientation, installation is called sensitization. This phenomenon of the senses is possible not only as a result of the use of indirect stimuli, but also through exercise.

The interaction of sensations is a change in the sensitivity of one analyzer system under the influence of another. The intensity of sensations depends not only on the strength of the stimulus and the level of adaptation of the receptor, but also on stimuli that affect other senses at this moment. Changing the sensitivity of the analyzer under the influence of irritation of other senses mage. name of the interaction of sensations.

In this case, the interaction of sensations, as well as adaptations, will be in two opposite processes: increasing and decreasing sensitivity. Here, the pattern of weaknesses is that weak stimuli increase and strong stimulants lower the sensitivity of analyzers by their interaction.

Changing the sensitivity of analyzers can cause the effect of lugosignal stimuli.

If you carefully, carefully peer, listen, relish, then the sensitivity to the properties of objects and phenomena becomes more clear, bright - objects and their properties are much better distinguished.

The contrast of sensations is a change in the intensity and quality of sensations under the influence of a previous or concomitant stimulus.

With the simultaneous action of two stimuli, a simultaneous contrast occurs. Such a contrast can be clearly seen in visual sensations. One piece you yourself will appear lighter on a black background, darker on a white one. A green object on a red background is perceived more saturated. Therefore, military installations are often masked so that there is no contrast. This should include the phenomenon of consistent contrast. After a cold, a faint warm stimulus will seem hot. Sensation of sourness increases sensitivity to sweets.

Sinesthesia of feelings is the occurrence of sex by the outpouring of a stimulus of one analyzer nidchutgiv. which are characteristic of another analyzer. In particular, during the action of sound stimuli, such as airplanes, rockets, etc., a person has their visual images. Or one who sees a wounded person also feels pain in a certain way.

The activity of the analyzers will be in interaction. This interaction is not isolated. It is proved that light increases auditory sensitivity, and weak sounds increase visual sensitivity, cold washing of the head increases sensitivity to red color and the like.