The chemoreceptor trigger zone (CTZ) is an area of the medulla oblongata that receives inputs from blood-borne drugs or hormones, and communicates with other structures in the vomiting center to initiate vomiting. The CTZ is located within the area postrema, which is on the floor of the fourth ventricle and is outside of the blood–brain
The sense of agency (SA), or sense of control, is the subjective awareness of initiating, executing, and controlling one’s own volitional actions in the world. It is the pre-reflective awareness or implicit sense that it is I who is executing bodily movement(s) or thinking thoughts. In normal, non-pathological experience, the SA is tightly integrated with
A contemporary quartz watch Time perception is a field of study within psychology, cognitive linguistics and neuroscience that refers to the subjective experience of time, which is measured by someone’s own perception of the duration of the indefinite and unfolding of events. The perceived time interval between two successive events is referred to as
A depiction of the ultrasound signals emitted by a bat, and the echo from a nearby object. Echolocation, also called bio sonar, is the biological sonar used by several kinds of animals. Echolocating animals emit calls out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near
Electroreceptors (Ampullae of Lorenzini) and lateral line canals in the head of a shark. Electroreception is the biological ability to perceive natural electrical stimuli. It has been observed almost exclusively in aquatic or amphibious animals, since salt-water is a much better conductor than air, the currently known exceptions being the echidnas, cockroaches and bees.
The homing pigeon can return to its home using its ability to sense the Earth’s magnetic field and other cues to orient itself Magnetoreception (also magnetoception) is a sense which allows an organism to detect a magnetic field to perceive direction, altitude or location. This sensory modality is used by a range of animals
Apperception (from the Latin ad-, “to, toward” and percipere, “to perceive, gain, secure, learn, or feel”) is any of several aspects of perception and consciousness in such fields as psychology, philosophy and epistemology. Meaning in philosophy The term originates with René Descartes in the form of the word apercevoir in his book Traité des
Extrasensory perception, ESP or Esper, also called sixth sense or second sight, includes claimed reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses but sensed with the mind. The term was adopted by Duke University psychologist J. B. Rhine to denote psychic abilities such as intuition, telepathy, psychometry, clairaudience, and clairvoyance, and their trans-temporal
A phrenological mapping of the brain – phrenology was among the first attempts to correlate mental functions with specific parts of the brain Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without proof, evidence, or conscious reasoning, or without understanding how the knowledge was acquired. Different writers give the word “intuition” a great variety of
The Ganzfeld experiments that aimed to demonstrate telepathy have been criticized for lack of replication and poor controls. Telepathy (from the Greek τῆλε, tele meaning “distant” and πάθος, pathos or -patheia meaning “feeling, perception, passion, affliction, experience”) is the purported transmission of information from one person to another without using any of our known
Psychometry (from Greek: ψυχή, psukhē, “spirit, soul” and μέτρον, metron, “measure”), also known as token-object reading, or psychoscopy, is a form of extrasensory perception characterized by the claimed ability to make relevant associations from an object of unknown history by making physical contact with that object. Supporters assert that an object may have an energy
Clairvoyance (/klɛɹˈvɔɪəns/ or /klɛəˈvɔɪəns/) (from French clair meaning “clear” and voyance meaning “vision”) is the alleged ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have some such ability is said accordingly to be a clairvoyant (/klerˈvɔɪənt/) (“one who sees clearly”). Claims for
Precognition (from the Latin præ-, “before” and cognitio, “acquiring knowledge”), also called prescience, future vision, future sight is an alleged psychic ability to see events in the future. As with other forms of extrasensory perception, there is no reliable scientific evidence that precognition is a real ability possessed by anyone and it is widely considered
Retrocognition (also known as postcognition), from the Latin retro meaning “backward, behind” and cognition meaning “knowing,” describes “knowledge of a past event which could not have been learned or inferred by normal means.” The term was coined by Frederic W. H. Myers. Overview Retrocognition has long been held by scientific researchers into psychic phenomena
Artist conception of spontaneous psychokinesis from 1911 French magazine La Vie Mysterieuse. Psychokinesis (from Greek ψυχή “mind” and κίνησις “movement”), or telekinesis (from τηλε- “far off” and κίνηση “movement”), is an alleged psychic ability allowing a person to influence a physical system without physical interaction. Psychokinesis experiments have historically been criticized for lack of
Photographs which purportedly depicted ghosts or spirits were popular during the 19th century. Parapsychology is a field of study concerned with the investigation of paranormal and psychic phenomena which include telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, near-death experiences, reincarnation, apparitional experiences, and other paranormal claims. It is identified as pseudoscience by a majority of mainstream scientists. Parapsychology
A supertaster is a person who experiences the sense of taste with far greater intensity than average, with some studies showing an increased sensitivity to bitter tastes. It may be a cause of selective eating, but selective eaters are not necessarily supertasters, and vice versa. History The term originates with experimental psychologist Linda Bartoshuk
Hyperesthesia (or hyperaesthesia) is a condition that involves an abnormal increase in sensitivity to stimuli of the sense. When a non-noxious stimulus causes the sensation of pain the area will be termed hyperaesthetic”. Stimuli of the senses can include sound that one hears, foods that one tastes, textures that one feels, and so forth. Increased
Hyperacusis (or hyperacousis) is a debilitating hearing disorder characterized by an increased sensitivity to certain frequencies and volume ranges of sound (a collapsed tolerance to usual environmental sound). A person with severe hyperacusis has difficulty tolerating everyday sounds, some of which may seem unpleasantly or painfully loud to that person but not to others. Hyperacusis
Multisensory integration, also known as multimodal integration, is the study of how information from the different sensory modalities, such as sight, sound, touch, smell, self-motion and taste, may be integrated by the nervous system. A coherent representation of objects combining modalities enables us to have meaningful perceptual experiences. Indeed, multisensory integration is central to adaptive
A phantom limb is the sensation that an amputated or missing limb is still attached. Approximately 60 to 80% of individuals with an amputation experience phantom sensations in their amputated limb, and the majority of the sensations are painful. Phantom sensations may also occur after the removal of body parts other than the limbs, e.g.
Anatomy of the eye. The external eye muscles are shown in red. The phantom eye syndrome (PES) is a phantom pain in the eye and visual hallucinations after the removal of an eye (enucleation, evisceration). Symptoms Many patients experience one or more phantom phenomena after the removal of the eye: Phantom pain in
Supernumerary phantom limb is a condition where the affected individual believes and receives sensory information from limbs of the body that do not actually exist, and never have existed, in contradistinction to phantom limbs, which appear after an individual has had a limb removed from the body and still receives input from it. An fMRI
Neuropathic pain is pain caused by damage or disease affecting the somatosensory nervous system. Neuropathic pain may be associated with abnormal sensations called dysesthesia or pain from normally non-painful stimuli (allodynia). It may have continuous and/or episodic (paroxysmal) components. The latter resemble stabbings or electric shocks. Common qualities include burning or coldness, “pins and needles”