Summary
Contents
Subject index
This core text emphasizes the underlying neural structures and functions of sensory systems (pain, olfaction, gustation, audition, vision, etc.) and presents this complex material at a level comprehensible to undergraduates as well as beginning graduate students. The text begins with a review of the central nervous system and its sensory components and includes discussions of methodological techniques and procedures used to study sensory processes.
Vision
Vision
The Visual Stimulus
This chapter introduces the processes that provide us with visual images, colors, patterns, motion, and depth derived from the environmental stimuli. Given this goal, it is appropriate to begin with the energy in the universe. The energy striking the earth comes from the sun and beyond. It is in the form of radiation and travels at 186,000 miles per second (speed of light because it is light) and has the properties of waves and particles. The particles are called photons. Figure 10.1 shows a diagram of the range of electromagnetic radiation. The figure also reflects the very restricted range of the spectrum used by the human visual sense. As can be seen, the electromagnetic spectrum consists of very short wavelengths (gamma waves) ...
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