33.1 Sensation and perception
33.2 Memory
33.3 Attention
33.4 Physiology of emotions
33.5 Sleep
33.6 Physiology of speech
33.7 Physiological foundations of thinking
33.8 Physiology of conscious and subconscious
Profile materials Control questions Situational tasks
Psychophysiological functions can be divided into two types: those phylogenetically older, available both in animals and humans which provide sensation, perception, attention, memory, sleep, and emotions; and evo-lutionarily younger ones which provide speech, thinking, and consciousness, the person's character.
33.1. Sensation and perception
Sensation (conscious perception) is a reflection of the properties of objects and phenomena of the objective world, i.e. sensory image that occurs when they act on the senses. Perception is a psychophysiological process, forming an integral sensory image of objects, phenomena of the objective world and an awareness
of its significance. Along with sensations and conception, perceptions form a concrete, sensual reflection of reality.
Physiological basis of sensation and perception
At the receptor level the specificity of sensations and perceptions is formed by the specialization (modality) of receptors, their high sensitivity to an adequate stimulus as a result of evolutionary adaptation to certain environmental conditions (D.A. Biryukov, 1958).
Neurophysiological mechanisms of sensation and perception are associated with formation of evoked potentials (EP) (see in Chapter 4, Fig. 4.6) and include three consecutive stages of 100 ms each (A.M. Ivanitsky, 1999). The sensory stage (first 100 ms, early EP waves) is associated with processing the physical characteristics of the signal in the cortical projection zones of the analyzer. This stage is not accompanied by subjective experience and sensation since the psychological phenomenon is absent.