INTRODUCTION
A human being is nothing more than the sum of his experiencesț (D. Hume). This seems to be very aprapoe regarding sensory physiology. Simplistically, our senses and the mechanisms behind those senses allow us to experience the world in which we live. We are all familiar with the basic senses that govern our bodies: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell. In fact, this may be what first comes to mind when presented with the term sensory physiology. Yet as simplistic as this may seem, it is however very complicated. Complicated enough so as to fill many, many books. My goal is to clarify the fundamentals of sensory physiology as related to sensory evaluation.
OBJECTIVE VS. SUBJECTIVE SENSORY PHYSIOLOGY
Sensory physiology can be divided into two categories, objective and subjective physiology. Objective sensory physiology can be described as the relationships between the environmental phenomenon that humans experience and the integrative processes that occur in the sensory central nervous system.. Essentially these are the principle physical and chemical processes in the structures of the body. This brings up the concept of the aforementioned five basic senses. Each of these senses, of course, has a corresponding specialized sense organ/s that allow us to interpret and experience our environment and the events taking place within our bodies. Each such organ is so constructed that it responds to a particular range of influences and passes on corresponding information to the CNS.
Conversely, subjective sensory physiology is the sum of the conscious sensations resulting from the response of the nervous system to a sensory stimulus. Therefore, the sensations and perceptions that one feels cannot be explained in physical or chemical processes but only by their subjective explanation(Schmidt, R.F.) Concern lies solely with the statements that a human makes regarding external phenomena, i.e. sensory stimuli. The diagram below clarifies the relationship between objective and subjective sensory physiology.
Relationship Between Objective and Subjective Sensory Physiology.
Sensory Physiology Nancy L. DeVore
Updated 8/29/97. Send mail to Food Resource, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR.