Sensation and perception application
Insomnia is a sleep disorder in which the patients have trouble sleeping or maintaining a state of sleep. Insomnia is caused by a variety of factors which include stress, chronic pain conditions like arthritis, and other infections that affect the quality of life like sinus infections and inflammation. Insomnia can also be as a result of an existent sleeping disorder such as restless leg syndrome. Understanding the cause of the condition forms the basis for treatment with options ranging from one patient to the other (Manjavong, 2016).
The treatment of insomnia involves treating the underlying cause of the disease manifestations. In patients who suffer from insomnia due to stress, psychotherapy together with pharmacological control of the underlying stress disorders can help eradicate the sleep disorder. Patients with chronic pain should be given pain-relieving medication while infection-induced insomnia is eradicated through the eradication of the underlying infection.
Depressants
Depressants are a drug category whose effects on the body are mainly manifested as a reduction in arousal which is mainly due to brain activation reduction. These drugs have varied effects on the body which makes them useful in selective therapeutic uses while at the same time having an increased abuse potential. The use of depressants is associated with a state of euphoria and detachment from reality. The drugs can also cause pain relief, sedation, and impaired ability to coordinate motor functions.
Examples of drugs under this category include barbiturates, benzodiazepines, opioids, alcohol, and cannabis. The prescription of depressants is used to induce calm and a state of hypnosis in the target patient. The drugs are also abused due to their hypnotic effects and their ability to cause euphoria. Most of the available depressants are highly addictive which can easily lead to dependence (Arunogiri, 2016). Depressants are also very effective in handling chronic pain.
Absolute threshold: discussions during lectures can land students in trouble. It is crucial to have a friend clarify a point without disturbing the peace of the rest of the class by maintaining voices at below the absolute threshold. In this example, the absolute threshold is the amount of stimulus that is required in order for it to be detectable 50% of the time (Aguilar, 2015).
Difference threshold: Driving my parents down the highway on weekends is one of the moments that I cherish most during the holidays. My mother hates speed, which makes it necessary to keep all accelerations below her difference threshold at all times. In this example, the difference threshold is the smallest variation in stimulation that is noticeable 50% of the time (Zhang, 2016).
Sensory adaptation: staying for long in a stuffy room causes an inability to notice the stuffiness or have an unpleasant sensation due to the humid conditions. It is the desensitization to a repetitive stimulus. Further exposure to that stimulus does not elicit the required response (Gepshtein, 2013).
Dark/ light adaptation: it is normal to have a moment of reduced visibility on entering a room due to since it takes time for the dark adaptation of the eyes to get completed. Dark accommodation is the accommodation of the eye to enable continued ability to see objects even after the drastic variation of how much light they are exposed to.
Gate control theory of pain: careful scratching of the skin around a wound leads to a present feeling of relief from pain stimulus originating from the wound. The pain reduction is due to a gate control mechanism. The theory of gate control of pain stipulates that the application of a non-painful stimulus close to the painful stimulus prevents the painful stimulus from getting to the brain.
Perception: Even though the lights were off, I could perceive the location of the keys due to past experience. Perception is the ability to become aware of something through the senses.
Proximity: lighting an outdoor fire when enjoying an outdoor moment can be a great way of relaxing. Busking from such a fire can be a present feeling when one is in the right proximity to the fire; Proximity, in this case, being the location of a person in relation to the fire (Luna, 2011).
Bottom-up processing: understanding the whole concept of molecular biology relies upon the build-up of basic knowledge coupled to a continuous accumulation of gained knowledge in a bottom-up processing model. Bottom-up processing is a psychological approach in which the perception of a phenomenon progresses from individual elements to the whole.
Depth perception: overtaking on a freeway is a thrilling experience when driving. The overtaking driver is required to correctly judge the location of other traffic on the road through accurate depth perception failure to which accidents are inevitable. In this example, depth perception has been taken as the ability to visualize the world in three dimensions and correctly deduce the distance from an object (Vienne, 2015).
Perceptual constancy: it is impossible to notice minute changes to my doors due to the perpetual constancy with which I perceive them. The inability to note minute changes cannot, however, impair my detection of abnormalities such as a break-in. Perceptual constancy is viewed as the habitual perception of an object we are familiar with as having the same size, shape, and brightness despite the changes in conditions that occur (Combe, 2010).
References
Aguilar, E. P.-P. (2015). Contralateral efferent suppression of human hearing sensitivity. Frontiers in systems neuroscience, 8, 251.
Arunogiri, S. a. (2016). Addressing sedative dependence: Principles for practice. Australian Clinical Psychologist, 2(1).
Combe, E. a. (2010). Observer movement and size constancy. Psychological Science, 21(5), 667-675.
Gepshtein, S. L. (2013). Sensory adaptation to optimal resource allocation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(11), 4368-4373.
Luna, D. a. (2011). Interactions between intrinsic principles of similarity and proximity and the extrinsic principle of the common region in visual perception. Perception, 40(12), 1467-1477.
Manjavong, M. P. (2016). Prevalence of insomnia and related impact: An analysis from a university community. The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 51(6), 544-553.
Vienne, C. L. (2015). Depth-of-focus affects 3d perception in stereoscopic displays. Perception, 44(6), 613-627.
Zhang, L.-L. L.-Y.-C.-L. (2016). Determination of Recognition Threshold and Just Noticeable Difference in the Sensory Perception of Pungency of Zanthoxylum bangeanum. International journal of food properties, 19(5), 1044-1052.
