Sensory system

(See also sense)

A sensory system is a part of the nervous system that consists of sensory receptors, neural pathways, and those parts of the brain responsible for processing the information. Specific sensory systems are those for somatic sensation, vision, olfaction, taste and hearing.

Functions

Coding

Sensory systems code for four aspects of a stimulus; type (modality), intensity, location, and duration.

Modality

There are many stimulus modalities; temperature, taste, sound, pressure. The type of sensory receptor activated by a stimulus plays the primary role in coding the stimulus modality.

Human sensory system

Human sensory receptors are:

• Chemosensor
• Mechanoreceptor
• Nociceptor
• Photoreceptor
• Thermoreceptor

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