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Read it 1. The human eye can only perceive electromagnetic energy…
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1. The human eye can only perceive electromagnetic energy in the form of visible light (Betts et al., 2013). Humans lack ultraviolet light sensors, but bees’ eyes have photoreceptors for it. Both humans and bees are trichromatic, meaning that we both have three photoreceptors, but the colors are different (Riddle, 2016). We both have blue and green receptors, but humans also have red, whereas bees don’t. In place of red, they have the ultraviolet light sensors. This means that bees cannot see red, although they can see orange and yellow. We cannot see “bee’s purple,” which is a mixture of yellow and ultraviolet light. “Even though humans can see more colors, bees have a much broader range of color vision. Their ability to see ultraviolet light gives them an advantage when seeking nectar,” (Riddle, 2016, para. 2).
2. Most color blind people are born with the condition, which means it is congenital (Turbert, 2022). They may have defects in their retinas’ cones, which are the parts of the eye that discriminates between reds, greens, and blues. Other people may have acquired color deficiency, which results from aging, trauma, medications, chemicals, or diseases like glaucoma, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s.
People with normal vision have trichromacy, which means that all three of their cones work properly (Colour Blind Awareness, n.d.). Those with anomalous trichromacy have all three of their cones working, but one cone perceives light differently. Protanomaly has a minimized responsivity to red light (red looks green), deuteranomaly for green light (green looks red), and tritanomaly for blue light (hard to tell the difference between blue and green, and yellow and red). Dichromacy is when two cones work to recognize color properly, but one cone cannot perceive parts of the light spectrum. Protanopia does not perceive red lights, deuteranopia does not perceive green lights (both unable to tell difference between red and green at all), and tritanopia does not perceive blue lights (unable to tell difference between blue and green, purple and red, and yellow and pink). Monochromacy describes people who cannot see color at all. They see the world in different shades of grey.
3. Transduction occurs when environmental stimuli, such as a light or chemical, is converted into a neural signal by sensory receptor cells (Betts et al., 2013). Sensation/transduction can be internal or external. Exteroceptors are external, such as somatosensory receptors in the skin. Interoceptors are internal, such as receptors in organs or tissues. Proprioceptors are “located near a moving part of the body, such as a muscle, that interprets the positions of the tissues as they move,” (Betts et al., 2013, para. 5). The type of receptor cell also depends on what kind of stimuli needs to be interpreted. For example, chemoreceptors are responsible for the chemical stimuli in taste and smell, while mechanoreceptors can sense physical stimuli like pressure, vibration, and balance.
Perception is the interpretation of neural signals from transduction into something meaningful (Betts et al., 2013). Once transduction turns stimuli into signals, the action potential is sent to the thalamus, which sends the signal to the appropriate part of the brain (The Human Memory, 2022). The sensory cortex is part of the cerebral cortex, which is composed of the visual, auditory, primary olfactory, gustatory, and primary somatosensory cortices. The area of the brain that the signal is sent to depends on what kind of stimuli is being interpreted.
For example, photoreceptors in the eyes’ retinas (cones and rods) begin to process visual information by transducing light energy into electrical signals (Betts et al., 2013). This changes the amount of neurotransmitters that the cones and rods are distributing onto the bipolar cells, which connects to retinal ganglion cells (RGC). “The axons of RGCs… collect at the optic disc and leave the eye as the optic nerve,” (Betts et al., 2013, para. 59). The signal is then sent from the optic nerve to the lateral geniculate nucleus in the thalamus, the brain’s relay station, to be sent to the primary visual cortex in the occipital lobe for processing (The Human Memory, 2022). The visual information is then sent back to the thalamus, then to the association cortices, where it is given meaning (Purves, 2001b).
4. Stimuli is first sent from the sensory receptors to the thalamus, then to the primary sensory and motor cortices of the cerebral cortex to be processed (Purves, 2001a). The primary cortices are more responsible for interpreting the sensations themselves. The signals are then sent back into the thalamus, where it is directed to the association cortices. These association cortices are in charge of complex processing that results in cognition, where the sensory information is given meaning (Purves, 2001b). Other functions in cognition include remembering, thinking, learning, and speaking, such as attributing the stimuli to memories. After perception is when the body can produce an appropriate response in behavior to the stimuli.
References
Betts, J. G., Young, K. A., Wise, J. A., Johnson, E., Poe, B., Kruse, D. H., Korol, O., Johnson, J. E., Womble, M., & DeSaix, P. (2013, April 25). Anatomy and physiology. OpenStax. https://philschatz.com/anatomy-book/contents/m46577.html
Colour Blind Awareness (n.d.). Types of colour blindness. Retrieved March 28, 2023 from https://www.colourblindawareness.org/colour-blindness/types-of-colour-blindness/
National Eye Institute (2019, June 26). Types of color blindness. https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-conditions-and-diseases/color-blindness/types-color-blindness
Purves, D., Augustine, G. J., Fitzpatrick, D., et al. (2001a). Neuroscience 2nd edition. Sunderland (MA): Sinauer Associates. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10952/
Purves, D., Augustine, G. J., Fitzpatrick, D., et al. (2001b). Neuroscience 2nd edition. Sunderland (MA): Sinauer Associates. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11109/
Riddle, S. (2016, May 20). How bees see and why it matters. Bee Culture. https://www.beeculture.com/bees-see-matters/#:~:text=Like%20us%2C%20bees%20are%20trichromatic,ultraviolet%20light%2C%20blue%20and%20green.
The Human Memory (2022, May 20). Sensory cortex. https://human-memory.net/sensory-cortex/
Turbert, D. (2022, Sept 26). What is color blindness? American Academy of Ophthalmology. https://www.aao.org/eye-health/diseases/what-is-color-blindness
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