Signaling what is happening in this moment time in our environment and in our own body. It gives people the opportunity to navigate in the conditions that surround them, and to match their actions and actions with them. That is, sensation is cognition of the environment.

Sensations - what is it?

Sensations are a reflection of certain properties that are inherent in an object, with their direct impact on human or animal senses. With the help of sensations, we gain knowledge about objects and phenomena, such as, for example, shape, smell, color, size, temperature, density, taste, etc., we catch a variety of sounds, comprehend space and make movements. Sensation is the primary source that gives a person knowledge about the world around him.

If a person were deprived of absolutely all senses, then he would not be able to cognize the environment in any way. After all, it is sensation that gives a person material for the most complex psychological processes, such as imagination, perception, thinking, and so on.

So, for example, those people who are deprived of sight from birth will never be able to imagine what blue, red or any other color looks like. And a person who has been deaf since birth cannot imagine how the mother's voice, the purr of a cat and the murmur of a stream sound.

So, sensation is in psychology that which is generated as a result of irritation of certain sense organs. Then irritation is an effect on the sense organs, and stimuli are phenomena or objects that in one way or another affect the sense organs.

The senses - what is it?

We know that sensation is the process of knowing the environment. And with the help of what do we feel and, consequently, know the world?

Even in ancient Greece, there were five senses and sensations corresponding to them. We have known them since school. These are auditory sensations, olfactory, tactile, visual and gustatory. Since sensation is a reflection of the surrounding world, and we use not only these senses, modern science greatly increased knowledge of possible types of feelings. In addition, the term "sense organs" today has a conditional interpretation. Sensory organs is a more accurate name.

Sensory nerve endings are the main part of any sensory organ. They are called receptors. Millions of receptors have sensory organs such as the tongue, eye, ear and skin. When a stimulus acts on a receptor, a nerve impulse occurs, which is transmitted along the sensory nerve to certain parts of the cerebral cortex.

In addition, there is sensory experience that is generated internally. That is, not as a result of physical effects on receptors. Subjective sensation is such an experience. One example of this sensation is tinnitus. In addition, the feeling of happiness is also a subjective feeling. Thus, we can conclude that subjective sensations are individual.

Types of sensations

Sensation is, in psychology, reality affecting our senses. Today, there are about two dozen different sensory organs that reflect the impact on the human body. All types of sensations are the result of exposure to various stimuli receptors.

Thus, sensations are divided into external and internal. The first group is what our senses tell us about the world, and the second is what our own body signals to us. Let's consider them in order.

External sensations include visual, gustatory, olfactory, tactile, and auditory sensations.

Visual sensations

It is a sense of color and light. All objects that surround us have some color, while a completely colorless object can only be one that we do not see at all. Distinguish between chromatic colors - various shades of yellow, blue, green and red, and achromatic - these are black, white and intermediate shades of gray.

As a result of the impact of light rays on the sensitive part of our eye (retina), visual sensations arise. The retina contains two types of cells that respond to color - these are rods (about 130) and cones (about seven million).

The activity of the cones occurs only during the daytime, but for rods, on the contrary, such a light is too bright. Our vision of color is the result of the work of the cones. At dusk, sticks are active, and a person sees everything in black and white. By the way, hence the well-known expression that at night all cats are gray.

Of course, the less light, the worse a person sees. Therefore, in order to prevent excessive eye strain, it is strongly recommended not to read at dusk and in the dark. Such strenuous activity adversely affects vision - the development of myopia is possible.

Auditory sensations

There are three types of such sensations: musical, speech and noise. The auditory analyzer in all these cases distinguishes four qualities of any sound: its strength, pitch, timbre and duration. In addition, he perceives the tempo-rhythmic features of sounds perceived sequentially.

Phonemic hearing is the ability to perceive speech sounds. Its development is determined by the speech environment in which the child is brought up. Well-developed phonemic hearing significantly affects the accuracy of written speech, especially during the period of study in primary school, while a child with poorly developed phonetic hearing makes many mistakes when writing.

A baby's ear for music is formed and developed in the same way as speech or phonemic. Early introduction of the child to musical culture plays a huge role here.

A certain emotional state of a person can create various noises. For example, the sound of the sea, rain, the howl of the wind, or the rustle of foliage. Noises can serve as a signal of danger, such as the hissing of a snake, the noise of an approaching car, a formidable barking of a dog, or they can signal joy, such as the thunder of a salute or the footsteps of a loved one. In school practice, it is often said about negative impact noise - it tires the student's nervous system.

Skin sensations

The tactile sensation is the sensation of touch and temperature, that is, the feeling of cold or warmth. Each kind of nerve endings located on the surface of our skin allows us to feel the temperature of the environment or touch. Of course, the sensitivity of different areas of the skin is different. For example, the chest, lower back and abdomen are more susceptible to the sensation of cold, and the tip of the tongue and fingertips are more susceptible to touch, the back is least susceptible.

Temperature sensations have a very pronounced emotional tone. So, a positive feeling is accompanied by average temperatures, despite the fact that the emotional colors of heat and cold differ significantly. Warmth is regarded as a relaxing feeling, while cold, on the contrary, is invigorating.

Olfactory sensations

Smell is the ability to smell. In the depths of the nasal cavity, there are special sensitive cells that help to recognize smells. Olfactory sensations in modern man play a relatively minor role. However, for those who are deprived of any sense organ, the rest work more intensely. For example, deaf-blind people are able to recognize people and places by smell, receive signals of danger using their sense of smell.

The sense of smell can also signal to a person that there is a danger nearby. For example, if there is a smell of burning or gas in the air. The emotional sphere of a person is greatly influenced by the smells of the objects around him. By the way, the existence of the perfume industry is entirely determined by the aesthetic need of a person for pleasant smells.

Taste and olfactory sensations are closely related to each other, since the sense of smell helps to determine the quality of food, and if a person has a runny nose, then all offered dishes will seem tasteless to him.

Taste sensations

They arise from irritation of the taste organs. These are the taste buds, which are located on the surface of the pharynx, palate and tongue. There are four main types of taste sensations: bitter, salty, sweet and sour. The range of shades that arise within these four sensations add flavor to each dish.

The edges of the tongue are susceptible to sour, its tip to sweet, and its base to bitter.

It should be noted that the feeling of hunger greatly influences the sense of taste. If a person is hungry, then the tasteless food seems much more pleasant.

Internal sensations

This group of sensations lets a person know what changes are taking place in his own body. Interoceptive sensation is an example of inner sensation. It tells us that we are hungry, thirsty, in pain, and so on. In addition, motor, tactile sensations and a sense of balance are also distinguished. Of course, interoceptive sensation is an extremely important survival ability. Without these sensations, we would not know anything about our own body.

Motor sensations

They determine that a person feels the movement and position in space of parts of his body. With the help of the work of the motor analyzer, a person has the ability to feel the position of his body and coordinate its movements. Receptors for motor sensations are located in the tendons and muscles of a person, as well as in the fingers, lips, tongue, because these organs need to make fine and precise working and speech movements.

Organic sensations

This type of sensation tells about how the body works. Inside organs, such as the esophagus, intestines and many others, there are corresponding receptors. As long as a person is healthy and well fed, he does not feel any organic or interoceptive sensations. But when something is disturbed in the body, they appear in full. For example, stomach pain occurs if a person has eaten something that is not too fresh.

Tactile sensations

This type of feeling is due to the fusion of two sensations - motor and skin. That is, tactile sensations appear when probing an object with a moving hand.

Equilibrium

This sensation reflects the position that our body occupies in space. In the labyrinth of the inner ear, which is also called the vestibular apparatus, when the position of the body changes, the lymph (a special fluid) fluctuates.

The organ of balance is closely related to the work of other internal organs. For example, with strong arousal of the organ of balance, a person may experience nausea or vomiting. In another way, it is called airborne or motion sickness. The stability of the organs of balance increases with regular training.

Painful sensations

The feeling of pain has a protective meaning, as it signals that something is wrong in the body. Without this type of sensation, a person would not even feel serious injuries. An anomaly is considered complete insensitivity to pain. It does not bring a person anything good, for example, he does not notice that he is cutting his finger or putting his hand on a hot iron. Of course, this leads to permanent injury.

Depending on the nature of the stimuli affecting a given analyzer, and on the nature of the sensations arising from this, separate types of sensations are distinguished.
First of all, a group of five types of sensations should be distinguished, which are a reflection of the properties of objects and phenomena of the external world - visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory and skin. The second group consists of three types of sensations that reflect the state of the body - organic, balance, motor. The third group consists of two types of special sensations - tactile and painful, which are either a combination of several sensations (tactile.), Or sensations of various origins (painful).
Visual sensations. Visual sensations - sensations of light and color - play a leading role in human cognition of the external world. Scientists have found that 80 to 90 percent of information from the outside world enters the brain through the visual analyzer, 80 percent of all working operations are carried out under visual control. Thanks to visual sensations, we learn the shape and color of objects, their size, volume, distance. Visual sensations help a person to navigate in space, coordinate movements. With the help of sight, a person learns to read and write. Books, movies, theater, television reveal the whole world to us. It is not without reason that the great natural scientist Helmholtz believed that of all human senses, the eye is the best gift and the most wonderful product of the creative forces of nature.
Visual sensations arise as a result of the action of light rays (electromagnetic waves) on the sensitive part of our eyes. The retina is the light-sensitive organ of the eye. Light affects the two types of light-sensitive cells in the retina - rods that. cones (fig. 17) so named for their external shape. Light stimulation is converted into a nervous process, which is transmitted along the optic nerve to the visual center of the cortex in the occipital part of the brain. The number of light-sensitive cells in the retina is very large - about 130 million rods and 7 million cones.
Rods are much more sensitive to light than cones, but cones make it possible to distinguish all the richness of shades of color, while rods are deprived of this. In daylight, only the cones are active (for rods, such a light is too bright) - as a result, we see colors (there is a feeling of chromatic colors, that is, all the colors of the spectrum). In low light (at dusk), the cones stop working (there is not enough light for them), and vision is carried out only by the apparatus of rods - a person sees mainly gray colors (all transitions from white to black, i.e. achromatic colors). There is a disease in which the work of sticks is disrupted and a person sees very badly or does not see anything at dusk and at night, and during the day his vision remains relatively normal. This disease is called "night blindness", as chickens, pigeons do not have sticks and at dusk they see almost nothing. Owls, bats, on the contrary, have only rods in the retina - during the day these animals are almost blind.
Color has a different effect on the well-being and performance of a person. It has been established, for example, that the optimal coloring of the workplace can increase labor productivity by 20-25 percent. Differently affects the color and success educational work... The most optimal color for painting the walls of classrooms is orange-yellow, which creates a cheerful, elated mood, and green, which creates an even, calm mood. Red is exciting; dark blue oppresses; both are tiresome to the eyes.
An irritant for the visual analyzer is light waves with a wavelength from 390 to 760 nanometers (millionths of a millimeter). The sensation of different colors is caused by different wavelengths. Light with a wavelength of about 700 nanometers gives the sensation of red, 580 nanometers - yellow, 530 nanometers - green, 450 nanometers - blue and 400 nanometers - violet.
In some cases, people experience color disturbances (approximately 4 percent of men and 0.5 percent of women). The reason is heredity, diseases and eye injury. The most common red-green blindness, called color blindness (named after Dalton, who first described this phenomenon). Color blind people do not distinguish between red and green, perceive them as dirty yellow wondering why other people designate this color in two words. Color blindness is a serious visual impairment that must be taken into account when choosing a profession. Color blind people cannot be
admitted to all professions of driving mud (drivers, machinists, pilots), cannot be artists, painters, fashion designers. A complete lack of sensitivity to chromatic colors is very rare: to such a person, all objects seem to be painted in gray colors, only different light lots (the sky is light gray, the grass is gray, the red flowers are dark gray, as in a black and white movie).
The sensation of color differs in lightness, which depends on the amount of light that is reflected or absorbed by the surface of the painted object. Surfaces painted in blue and yellow reflect light better than painted green or red. Black velvet reflects only 0.03 percent of the light, while white paper only reflects 85 percent of the incident light.
If we color the sectors of the circle in the seven primary colors of the spectrum, then when the circle rotates quickly, all the colors will merge and the circle will appear gray. This is because the image of the individual colors of the spectrum appearing in the visual analyzer does not immediately disappear after the stimulus stops acting. It continues to persist for some time (about 1/5 s) in the form of a so-called sequential image. Thus, the sensation of flickering of individual stimuli disappears and they merge. This is the basis of the demonstration of movies, where the speed of 24 frames per second is perceived as a drawing come to life.
A person is able to see objects at different distances from the eye. Optical properties the eyes change when moving from free looking into the distance to looking at close objects. This ability of the eye to adapt to clear vision of variously distant objects is called the accommodation of the eye.
The less light, the worse a person sees. Therefore, you cannot read in poor lighting conditions. At dusk, it is necessary to turn on electric lighting earlier so as not to cause excessive stress in the work of the eye, which can be harmful to vision, and contribute to the development of myopia in schoolchildren.
The importance of lighting conditions in the origin of myopia is indicated by special studies: in schools located on wide streets, there are usually fewer myopic ones than in schools located on narrow streets lined with houses. In schools, where the ratio of window area to floor area in classrooms was 15 percent, there were more myopic people than in schools where this ratio was 20 percent.
Auditory sensations. The stimulus for the auditory analysis of the torus is sound waves - longitudinal vibrations of air particles, propagating in all directions from the sound source. When air vibrations enter the ear, they cause the eardrum to vibrate. The oscillation of the latter is transmitted through the middle ear to the inner ear, in which there is a special apparatus - the cochlea - for the perception of sounds. The human hearing organ reacts to sounds in the range of 16 to 20,000 vibrations per second. The ear is most sensitive to sounds about 1000 vibrations per second.
The cerebral end of the auditory analyzer is located in the temporal lobes of the cortex. Hearing, like sight, plays an important role in a person's life. The ability of verbal communication depends on hearing. People with hearing loss usually lose their ability to speak. Speech can be restored, but on the basis of muscle control, which in this case will replace auditory control. This is done by special education... Therefore, some blind and deaf people have a satisfactory colloquial speech without hearing sounds at all.
There are three characteristics of auditory sensations. Auditory sensations reflect the pitch, which depends on the frequency of vibration of sound waves, loudness, which depends on the amplitude of their vibration, and timbre - the reflection of the shape of vibration of sound waves. Sound timbre is a quality that distinguishes sounds of equal pitch and volume. Different timbres differ from each other the voices of people, the sounds of individual musical instruments.
All auditory sensations can be reduced to three types - speech, musical and noise. Musical sounds - singing and sounds of most musical instruments. Examples of noises are the noise of a motor, the roar of a moving train, the crackle of a typewriter, etc. The sounds of speech combine musical sounds (vowels) and noise. ”(Consonants).
A person quickly develops phonemic hearing for sounds. native language... It is more difficult to perceive a foreign language, since each language has its own phonemic signs. The ear of many foreigners simply will not distinguish the words "Dust", "dust", "drank" - the words for the Russian ear are completely different. A resident of Southeast Asia will not hear the difference between the words "boots" and "dogs".
Strong and prolonged noise causes significant losses of nervous energy in people, damages the cardiovascular system - absent-mindedness appears, hearing, performance decreases, nervous disorders... Noise negatively affects mental activity... Therefore, in our country, special measures are being taken to combat noise. In particular, in a number of cities it is forbidden to give unnecessary automobile and railway signals, it is forbidden to break the silence after 11 pm.
Taste sensations. Taste is caused by the action on the taste buds of substances dissolved in saliva or water. A dry lump of sugar placed on a dry tongue will not give any taste sensations.
Taste buds are taste buds located on the surface of the tongue, pharynx, and palate. There are four types of them; accordingly, there are four elementary taste sensations: the sensation of sweet, sour, salty and bitter: The variety of taste depends on the nature of the combination of these qualities and on the addition of olfactory sensations to the taste sensations: combining sugar, salt, quinine and oxalic acid in different proportions was able to simulate some of the taste sensations.
Olfactory sensations. The organs of smell are olfactory cells located in the nasal cavity. Irritants for the olfactory analyzer are particles of odorous substances that enter the nasal cavity along with air.
In modern man, olfactory sensations play a relatively insignificant role. But with damage to hearing and vision, the sense of smell, along with other remaining intact analyzers, becomes especially important. The blindly deaf use their sense of smell, as the sighted use their sight: they determine familiar places by smells and recognize familiar people.
Skin sensations. There are two types of skin sensations - tactile (sensations of touch) and temperature (sensations of warmth and cold). Accordingly, on the surface of the skin there are different types nerve endings, each of which Gives a sensation of only touch, Only cold, only warmth. The sensitivity of different areas of the skin to each of these types of irritations is different. The touch is felt most at the tip of the tongue and at the fingertips; the back is less sensitive to touch. The skin of those parts of the body that are usually covered by clothing is most sensitive to the effects of heat and cold.
A peculiar kind of skin sensations - vibrational sensations that arise when the surface of the body is exposed to air vibrations produced by moving or oscillating bodies. In normal hearing people, this type of sensation is poorly developed. However, with hearing loss, especially in the deaf-blind, this type of sensation develops noticeably and serves to orient such people in the world around them. Through vibrational sensations, they feel music, even recognize familiar melodies, feel a knock on the door, talk, tapping Morse code with their feet and perceiving the shaking of the floor, on the street they learn about the approaching transport, etc.
Organic sensations. Organic sensations include feelings of hunger, thirst, satiety, nausea, suffocation, etc. The corresponding receptors are located in the walls of the internal organs: the esophagus, stomach, intestines. During normal operation of internal organs, individual sensations merge into one sensation, which constitutes the general well-being of a person.
Feelings of balance. The organ of sense of balance is the vestibular apparatus of the inner ear, which gives signals about the movement and position of the head. The normal functioning of the organs of balance is very important for humans. For example, when determining the suitability for the specialty of a pilot, especially a pilot-cosmonaut, the activity of the balance organs is always checked. The organs of balance are closely related to other internal organs. With strong overexcitation of the organs of balance, nausea and vomiting (the so-called motion sickness or air sickness) is observed. However, with regular training, the stability of the balance organs increases significantly.
Motor sensations. Motor, or kinesthetic, sensations are sensations of movement and position of body parts. The receptors of the motor analyzer are located in muscles, ligaments, tendons, and articular surfaces. Motor sensations signal the degree of muscle contraction and the position of parts of our body, for example, how bent the arm is in the shoulder, elbow joint, etc.
Tactile sensations. Tactile sensations are a combination, a combination of skin and motor sensations when feeling objects, that is, when a moving hand touches them. The touch has great importance in human labor activity, especially when performing labor operations requiring great accuracy. With the help of the sense of feeling, the little child learns the world. This is one of the important sources of information about the objects around it.
For people without sight, touch is one of the most important means of orientation and cognition. As a result of exercise, it reaches great perfection. Such people can cleverly peel potatoes, thread a needle, engage in simple modeling, and even sewing.
Painful sensations. Painful sensations are of a different nature. First, there are special receptors ("pain points") located on the surface of the skin and in internal organs and muscles. Mechanical damage to the skin, muscles, diseases of internal organs give a feeling of pain. Secondly, the sensations of pain arise when a superstrong stimulus acts on any analyzer. Blinding light, deafening sound, extreme cold or heat radiation, very harsh in the groin also cause a painful sensation.
Painful sensations are very unpleasant, but they are our reliable guardian, warning us about danger, signaling about trouble in the body. If it were not for the pain, a person would often not notice serious illness or dangerous injuries. Not for nothing did the ancient Greeks say: "Pain is the watchdog of health." Complete insensitivity to pain is a rare "anomaly, and it brings a person not joy, but serious trouble.

Exteroceptive sensations, in turn, are divided into contact and distant. Contact sensations include tactile, temperature (which can be intero - and exteroceptive) and taste sensations, distant ones - sensations of light, sound, and smell. Proprioceptive are the sensations that determine the position of the body, as well as the sensations of balance and acceleration. Sensations that come from internal organs (hunger, fatigue, thirst) belong to interoceptive.

According to the system of analyzers, sensations are divided into visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, skin, kinesthetic, equilibrium (static), organic sensations.

Visual sensations

Visual sensations arise as a result of the action of rays of light on the retina of the eye. Thanks to visual sensations, a person learns the illumination, color of objects, their sizes, proportions, design, volume, placement in space (Fig. 6.5). The central part of the visual analyzer is located in the occipital region of the brain. With some diseases, for example, with a lack of retinol (vitamin A) in the body, hemeralopia (night blindness) occurs - a sharp deterioration in vision in poor lighting conditions, at dusk and at night.

Auditory sensations

Of great importance in human life are auditory sensations, which arise as a result of the action of sound waves on the organ corti - the receptor apparatus of the auditory analyzer in the inner ear of a person. The cortical central part of the auditory analyzer is located in the temporal lobe of the brain. A person can perceive sounds with a frequency of vibration from 16 to 20,000 Hz. On the basis of auditory sensations, a person masters the language, with the help of hearing he controls his own and someone else's language. Studying the nature of human hearing, we are convinced that it is a product of human history. As A. A. Ukhtomsky wrote, we can recognize that hearing is the most important of the human sense organs. It is he who helps a person to become who she is. The hearing of a person has an extraordinary and responsible practical task, which extends far beyond physiology: the task of serving as a support and mediator in the great business of organizing speech and interviews.

In case of hearing loss, vision, other types of sensations become especially important for a person. A. I. Skorokhodova, who is blind and blind, speaking at the XVIII International Congress of Psychologists in 1966, noted on this occasion:

“A person who is deprived of hearing and sight can look at the sculpture with his hands, getting great pleasure from it. We, deaf-blind, smell the earth, grass, flowers, the smell of the sea or the river, if they are nearby. When we are in the garden, we can touch bushes, low trees with our hands and feel the fluttering of leaves in the breeze. I personally enjoy keeping my hands on a musical instrument while someone's playing, putting my fingers on the cat's neck when it purrs. If I am in a room during a severe thunderstorm (reported by people who hear), I place my hands on the window pane and feel the vibration when thunderclaps are particularly violent. I really like to listen to thunderstorms in this way. When swimming in the sea, I like to feel the waves. Beauty and poetry can also be found in all these sensations. "

Tactile (touch, pressure). They play a significant role in the perception of the size and shape of objects.

Temperature (cold, warm):

1) arise as a result of contact with objects that have a temperature higher or lower than body temperature;

2) are conditioned by organic processes and mental states.

Painful. Among sensations, pain occupies a special place - a subjectively painful, sometimes intolerable sensation arising from the action of very strong and destructive stimuli. Observations indicate that pain sensations are generalized and processed by the second signaling system, as a result of which the patient's complaints are for the doctor one of the indicators of the pathological process, its nature and the site of the lesion. With simultaneous and successive painful stimuli, there is an interaction of pain sensations. This manifests itself both in the oppression of weak pain by strong (weak pain in the hand intensifies toothache), and in masking one pain with pain of another nature. In relation to pain, the social and moral attitude of the individual, the conscious and organized nature of her behavior, matters. The sensation of pain occurs when sensitive nerve endings located in the skin are irritated. Painful sensations signal the presence of an ear factor, the need to eliminate it or reduce its influence.

Rice. 6.5. v

Olfactory sensations arise when specific receptor cells are irritated, located in the mucous membrane of the upper and partly the middle nasal passages. The irritants of receptor cells are molecules of odorous substances that enter the olfactory area either through the nose (during inhalation), or through the nasopharynx at the time of swallowing food. In the latter case, the olfactory sensation is combined with the gustatory sensation, which arises as a result of exposure to the taste buds. chemical substances... Taste receptors are found on the surface of the tongue, the back of the pharynx, palate, and in the epiglottis. Accordingly, they are classified as sweet, sour, salty, bitter.

Smell and taste are closely related, and if you completely exclude the sense of smell, then it will seem to a person that different foods have the same taste.

A decrease in the sense of smell can be observed with tumors of the frontal lobes of the brain, a disorder of smell - with craniocerebral injuries, regardless of their location.

Motor, or kenesthetic, sensations characterize the positions and movements of body parts in space, based on signals from proprioceptors.

Motor sensations in combination with skin sensations, which occur when touching objects with hands, give a touch; through it, a person learns the size, hardness, roughness, shape and other properties of objects. The cerebral cortex carries out the highest analysis and synthesis of signals coming from muscles, tendons, and internal organs.

Labor production activity of people determines the presence of specific human characteristics in the sensation of the position of the body in space, its movement, in the muscular-articular movements of the hands in the process of labor actions, intelligible speech. Articulating movements accompany and enhance the differentiated movements of the hand that writes; language movements in the act of reading include muscular sensations from eye movements.

Linguistic kinesthesia, the sensation of the position and movement of the organs involved in linguistic creation, is, according to I.P. Pavlov, the basal component of the second signaling system.

Static sensations (balance, standing, lying). The receptor is the vestibular apparatus, which transmits stimuli to the temporal cortex. large hemispheres, signals the position of the human body in space. This is of particular importance for pilots, astronauts, swimmers, gymnasts.

Interoceptive (organic) sensations arise during the transmission and processing in the central nervous system of information that appears as a result of the excitation of specialized nerve endings for the perception of signals about the course of metabolic processes in the internal environment of the body. These sensations include feelings of hunger, thirst, nausea, pain, and the like.

There are certain patterns that characterize sensations:

1) the absolute sensitivity of the sense organs, that is, the ability of a person to feel insignificant amounts of irritation;

2) the threshold of sensation - the level of intensity of the stimulus that is capable of causing a sensation. The minimum strength of a stimulus that can produce a sensation is called the lower threshold.

The upper threshold of sensitivity is the maximum strength of the stimulus, which still causes an adequate sensation. If you increase its strength, an inappropriate sensation will arise, for example, painful.

The ability to feel the smallest difference in the intensity of two acting stimuli is called the discrimination threshold.

The sensation of the difference in the brightness of the light is 1/100 of the original value; the feeling of the difference in the weight of the two indicators is equal to 1/30 of the weight of the original object; for sound sensitivity - 1/10.

3) adaptation - a change in the sensitivity of the analyzer as a result of the adaptation of the senses to the acting stimulus;

4) sensitization - an increase in sensitivity as a result of the interaction of sensations.

If another strong stimulus acts simultaneously with any stimulus, the sensitivity of our sensory organs is significantly reduced, because the new stimulus by its strength reduces the intensity of the previous one. For example, it is known that when a child cries, you can calm her down if you distract his attention with a stronger stimulus. Sound is felt louder in bright light. Conversely, under the influence of a weaker stimulus, our sensitivity or susceptibility increases. For example, some people turn on the radio while working; when people with poor eyesight are taught to read, use the quiet ticking of a clock; with autistic or schizophrenic patients in a catatonic state, they speak quietly to get an answer, although other factors are involved.

Direct simple stimuli acting on the sense organs are important in the diagnosis of diseases (for example, the smell of acetone from the patient's mouth may indicate a diabetic coma);

5) simultaneous sensation (synesthesia) consists in the fact that any stimulus, acting on the corresponding sensory organ, in addition to the will of the subject, causes not only a sensation specific to this sensory organ, but at the same time also an additional sensation or representation characteristic of another sensory organ. The most common manifestation of synesthesia is the so-called color hearing, in which sound, along with an auditory sensation, also causes a color image. Colored hearing was observed among composers N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. M. Scriabin, N. K. Churlionis;

6) compensation - an increase in the activity of some analyzers with the loss or absence of others;

7) contrast - the opposite of sensations;

8) aftereffect - with the termination of the stimulus, the sensation does not disappear immediately, but a certain period of time persists.

I. M. Sechenov in the book "Reflexes of the brain" wrote that one of necessary conditions normal mental activity human is a known minimum of stimuli entering the brain from the senses. This was later confirmed clinically: if a person does not receive the required amount of stimuli due to the pathology of the sense organs, then he falls asleep or plunges into oblivion and does not remember anything that happens to her during this period of time.

The effect of limiting the number of stimuli (sensory isolation) on the mental state of a person has been studied experimentally in animals and in humans.

Cosmonauts A. A. Leonov and V. V. Lebedev in the book " Psychological problems interplanetary flight "they write that in space flight they lacked green plants, sounds and phenomena familiar to man. The cosmonauts felt neither wind, nor rain, nor snow. They missed the earthly familiar sounds, phenomena and aromas. and was seen in a dream.In conditions of sensory isolation, a person may experience unusual mental states, which are initially functional, reversible. It should be noted that they do not occur in every person. Under the condition of a significant increase in the isolation period, these functional changes become pathological - neuropsychic diseases (neuroses and psychosis) arise.

: I) by the presence or absence of direct contact with the stimulus causing the sensation; 2) at the location of the receptors; 3) by the time of occurrence in the course of evolution; 4) according to the modality (type) of the stimulus.

By the presence or absence of direct contact of the receptor with an irritant that causes sensation, they releasedistant and contactreception. Sight, hearing, smell are related to distant reception. These types of sensations provide orientation in the immediate environment. Taste, pain, tactile sensations - contact.

By the modality of the stimulus sensations are divided into visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, static and kinesthetic, temperature, pain, thirst, hunger.

Let us briefly characterize each of the named types of sensations.

Visual sensations... They arise as a result of the action of light rays (electromagnetic waves) on the sensitive part of our eye - the retina, which is the receptor of the visual analyzer. Light affects two types of light-sensitive cells in the retina - rods and cones, so named for their external shape.

Auditory sensations... These sensations also refer to distant ones and are also of great importance in a person's life. Thanks to, a person hears speech, has the ability to communicate with other people. The stimuli for auditory sensations are sound waves - longitudinal vibrations of air particles, propagating in all directions from the sound source. The human hearing organ reacts to sounds in the range of 16 to 20,000 vibrations per second.

The auditory senses reflect the pitch, which depends on the frequency of the sound waves; loudness, which depends on the amplitude of their oscillations; sound timbre - forms of vibration of sound waves.

Everything auditory sensations can be reduced to three types - speech, music, noises.

Vibration sensation... Vibration sensitivity is adjacent to auditory sensations. They have a common nature of the reflected physical phenomena. The vibrational sensations reflect the vibrations of the elastic medium. This type of sensitivity is figuratively called "contact hearing". No special human vibration receptors have been found. Currently, it is believed that all tissues of the body can reflect the vibrations of the external and internal environment. In humans, vibration sensitivity is subordinated to auditory and visual.

Olfactory sensations... They refer to distant sensations that reflect the smells of objects around us. The organs of smell are olfactory cells located in the upper part of the nasal cavity.

The group of contact sensations, as already noted, includes taste, skin (pain, tactile, temperature).

Taste sensations... They are caused by the action on the taste buds of substances dissolved in saliva or water. Taste buds - taste buds located on the surface of the tongue, pharynx, palate - distinguish the sensations of sweet, sour, salty and bitter.

Skin sensations... There are several analyzing systems in the skin: tactile(touch feeling) temperature(sensations of cold and warmth), painful... The tactile sensory system is unevenly distributed throughout the body. But most of all, the accumulation of tactile cells is observed in the palm, on the tips of the fingers and on the lips. Tactile sensations of the hand, combined with muscular-articular sensitivity, form touch- a specifically human, labor-developed system cognitive activities hands.

If you touch the surface of the body, then push on it, then the pressure can cause painful feeling. Thus, tactile sensitivity gives knowledge about the qualities of an object, and pain sensations signal the body about the need to move away from the stimulus and have a pronounced emotional tone.

The third type of skin sensitivity is temperature sensations - associated with the regulation of heat exchange between the body and environment... The distribution of heat and cold receptors on the skin is uneven. The back is most sensitive to cold, the chest is the least sensitive.

The position of the body in space is signaled static sensations... Static sensitivity receptors are located in the vestibular apparatus of the inner ear. Sudden and frequent changes in body position relative to the plane of the ground can lead to dizziness.

A special place and role in human life and activity is occupied by interoceptive(organic) sensations that arise from receptors located in the internal organs and signal the functioning of the latter. These sensations form an organic feeling (well-being) of a person.

Auditory sensation is the effect of sound waves on the auditory receptor, which represent a rarefaction of air.

Sound waves differ in amplitude, frequency and duration of vibration. Auditory sensations are caused by periodic and non-periodic oscillatory processes, which are expressed in musical sounds and noises.

Sound properties:

1) volume. Depends on the strength and amplitude of the vibration of the sound wave;

2) height. Reflects the vibration frequency of the sound wave. The human ear does not perceive all sounds. Ultrasounds and infrasounds remain outside the limits of audibility;

3) timbre. Each sound has its own character and color. Timbre shows

acoustic composition of sound.

Binaural hearing is the ability of the hearing to determine the direction of where the sound is coming from. Distinguish between phase (the direction of sound is due to the difference in the arrival times of the same phases of the sound wave to both ears) and amplitude (the direction of sound is due to the difference in loudness obtained in both ears) binaural effect.

Touch is the sensation of touch and pressure. The organ of human touch is a moving hand, it is an organ of labor and cognition of reality. She gives us knowledge of the properties of the material world. The main properties of the material world (hardness, elasticity, impenetrability) are perceived by the moving hand and transmitted by sensations. Skin sensations are specific human feeling working and moving hand. When cognizing the material world, motor processes take place, which turn into feelings, i.e. in the effective knowledge of objects. Tactile components come from receptors that are located in muscles, ligaments, and joint capsules. When moving, the receptors are irritated by tension. However, sensation is not limited to sensations of pressure or touch. Tactile sensations such as touch, muscular-articular pressure, in combination with skin sensitivity, reflect the properties through which objects of the world around us are cognized. The interaction of pressure and temperature sensations gives us a sense of moisture, and the combination of moisture with permeability allows us to distinguish between solid and liquid bodies. The interaction of a moving hand with material bodies makes it possible to determine viscosity, roughness, smoothness and oiliness. The sense of touch functions in parallel with and under the control of vision. In the blind, the sense of touch acts separately from sight. The teaching of the blind is based on the sense of touch and the moving hand.

Smelling sensations

In general, sensation is called the simplest mental process of reflection in the cerebral cortex of individual properties of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, which at a given moment affect the human brain through the corresponding sense organs. Smell is the ability to sense and distinguish odorous substances (for example, the smell of food).

Olfactory sensations refer to treble sensations that reflect the smells of objects around a person. The organs of smell are olfactory cells located in the upper part of the nasal cavity, and the cortical part of the olfactory analyzer is located in the temporal part. Volatile substances that have a smell are irritants of the olfactory organ. These are the substances that can penetrate into the olfactory area both from the outside, i.e. through the nostrils and from the nasopharynx. Consequently, odorous substances in the form of, for example, steam, gas, mist, dust or smoke reach the receptors when inhaled through the nose or mouth and spread through the nasopharynx into the nasal cavity. The receptors of the oral mucosa are also involved in the formation of the olfactory sensation. These include tactile, temperature, pain receptors. Substances that irritate only the olfactory receptors are called olfactive, but there are mixed substances that irritate other receptors as well. Thus, the olfactory analyzer plays a role in determining the properties of a substance, not only located at a particular distance from a person, but also falling into a person's mouth.

It should be noted that the sense of smell in one and the same person can fluctuate within a fairly wide range. With prolonged contact of odorous substances with the mucous membrane, adaptation is observed, i.e. decreased olfactory sensitivity. Adaptation time at different people different odors are not the same. With an increase in the concentration of substances, it decreases, so people who deal with strongly odorous substances quickly get used to them and stop feeling them. But full adaptation to one smell does not exclude sensitivity to others.

In a modern person, the olfactory analyzer is less developed than in his distant ancestors, since in a healthy person, the orienting function is primarily performed by sight and hearing. But with damage to sight and hearing, the sense of smell, along with the remaining intact analyzers, becomes especially important. For example, the deaf-blind use the sense of smell, as the sighted use their sight, i.e. identify familiar places by smells and recognize familiar people.