Biopsychology/Sensation and Perception
Instructions
Take a moment to review the parts of the brain and respond to the following questions:
Which part of the brain is responsible for problem-solving?
Which part of the brain is responsible for processing memories?
Which part of the brain processes emotion?
What is the most unusual concept about sensation and perception that you learned this week?
he part of the brain responsible for processing memories is the hippocampus. This area deals with encoding new memories, consolidating short-term memories into long-term memories, and retrieving stored memories when needed. The hippocampus is a crucial component to learning and memory formation because it stores these types of information so that they can be accessed at any time.
The part of the brain that processes emotion is known as the limbic system. This includes structures such as amygdala, hypothalamus, thalamus, cingulate gyrus and other areas associated with pleasure centers like reward pathways; all working together to regulate our emotions by monitoring internal states like hormones or neurotransmitters related to emotional responses (e.g., fear).
One unusual concept about sensation and perception that I learned this week was how our brains construct reality through sensory inputs from our environment - something known as top down processing. Top down processing involves using previous knowledge about an object or situation to help us make sense out of what we are perceiving in real-time by comparing it against existing information we have stored in our memory banks from past experiences. For example if you are looking at a car while walking on a street you may not necessarily notice its exact color but you will recognize it due to having seen many cars before on similar streets – your mind has already made associations between different characteristics such as size/shape/color/make etc..