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accessory structures
Structures such as the lens of the eye, that modify a stimulus
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Transduction
The process of converting incoming energy into neural activity.
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Neural Receptors
Specialized cells that detect certain forms of energy and transduce them into nerve cell activity.
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Sensory Adaptation
The process through which responsiveness to an unchanging stimulus decreases over time.
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Encoding
Translating the physical properties of a stimulus into a pattern of nerce cell activity that specifically identifies those properties.
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Specific Energy Doctrine
The discovery that stimulation of a particular sensory nerve provides codes for that sense, no matter how the stimulation takes place.
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Sound
A repetitive fluctuation in the pressure of a medium, such as air.
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Amplitude
The difference between the peak and the baseline of a waveform.
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Wavelength
The distance from one peak to the next in a waveform.
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Frequency
The number of complete waveforms, or cycles, that pass a given point in space every second.
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Loudness
A psychological dimension of sound determined by the amplitude of a sound wave.
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Timbre
The mixture of frequencies and amplitudes that make up the quality of sound.
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Tympanic membrane
A membrane in th emiddle ear that generates vibrations that match the sound waves sriking it.
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Cochlea
A fluid-filled spiral structure in the ear in which auditory transduction occurs.
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Basilar membrane
The floor of the fluid-filled duct that runs through the cochlea.
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Acoustic nerve
The bundle of axons that carries stimuli from the hair cells of the cochlea to the brain.
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Pitch
How high or low a tone sounds.
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Absolute Pitch
The ability to identify the musical notes associated with specific sound frequencies.
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Auditory Cortex
The area in the brain's temporal lobe that is first to receive information about sounds from the thalamus.
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Place theory
A theory that hair cells at a particular place on the basilar membrane respond most to a particular frequency of sound.
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Visible light
Electromagnetic radiation that has wavelength of approximately 400 to 750 nm
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Light Intensity
A physical dimension of light waves that refers to how much energy that light containsit determines the brightness of light.
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Light Wavelength
The distance between peaks in light waves.
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Cornea
The curved, transparent, protective layer through which light rays enter the eye.
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Pupil
An opening in the eye, just behind the cornea, through which light passes.
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Iris
The colorful part of the eye, which constricts or relaxes to adjust the amount of light entering the eye.
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Lens
The part of the eye behind the pupil that bends light rays, focusing them on the retina.
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Retina
The surface at the back of the eye onto which the lens focuses light rays.
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Volley Theory
The view that some sounds are coded by matching the frequency of neural firing.
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