General concept of sensations.

Feel allow a person to perceive signals and reflect the properties and signs of things in the external world and the states of the body. They connect a person with outside world and are both the main source of knowledge and the main condition for its mental development.

Sensation is one of the simplest cognitive mental processes. The human body receives a variety of information about the state of the external and internal environment in the form of sensations with the help of the senses. Sensation is the very first connection of a person with the surrounding reality.

The process of sensation arises as a result of the impact on the sense organs of various material factors, which are called stimuli, and the process of this impact itself is irritation.

Feelings arise on the basis of irritability. Sensation is a product of development in the phylogenesis of irritability. Irritability - common property all living bodies to come into a state of activity under the influence external influences(prepsychic level), i.e. directly affecting the life of the organism. Irritation causes excitation, which passes through the centripetal, or afferent, nerves to the cerebral cortex, where sensations arise. At an early stage in the development of living things, the simplest organisms (for example, a ciliate shoe) do not need to distinguish between specific objects for their life activity - irritability is sufficient. At a more complex stage, when a living thing needs to determine any objects that it needs for life, and, consequently, the properties of this object as necessary for life, at this stage, irritability is transformed into sensitivity. Sensitivity - the ability to respond to neutral, indirect influences that do not affect the life of the organism (an example with a frog that reacts to a rustle). The totality of feelings creates elementary mental processes, processes of mental reflection.

Distinguish two main forms sensitivity, one of which depends on the environmental conditions and is called adaptation, and the other depends on the conditions of the state of the organism, is called sensitization.

Adaptation(adaptation, adjustment) is a change in sensitivity in the process of adapting to environmental conditions.

Three directions are distinguished:

1) increased sensitivity under the influence of a weak stimulus, for example, dark adaptation of the eye, when within 10-15 minutes. sensitivity increases more than 200 thousand times (at first we do not see objects, but gradually we begin to distinguish their outlines);

2) a decrease in sensitivity under the influence of a strong stimulus, for example, for hearing, this occurs in 20–30 seconds; with continuous and prolonged exposure to the stimulus, the corresponding receptors adapt to it, as a result of which the intensity of nerve excitations transmitted from the receptors to the cortex begins to decrease, which underlies adaptation.

3) the complete disappearance of sensation as a result of prolonged exposure to the stimulus, for example, after 1–1.5 minutes, a person ceases to feel any smell in the room.

Adaptation is especially manifested in the field of vision, hearing, smell, touch, taste and indicates a greater plasticity of the organism, its adaptation to environmental conditions.

Sensitization- this is an exacerbation of sensitivity as a result of a change in the internal state of the body under the influence of stimuli that enter other sense organs at the same time (for example, an increase in visual acuity under the influence of weak auditory or olfactory stimuli).

Types of sensations (skin, auditory, olfactory, visual, contact, distant).

There are various approaches to the classification of sensations. It has long been customary to distinguish five (according to the number of sensory organs) basic types of sensations: smell, taste, touch, sight and hearing. This classification of sensations according to the main modalities is correct, although not exhaustive. B.G. Ananiev spoke about eleven types of sensations. A.R. Luria believed that the classification of sensations can be carried out according to at least two basic principles - systematic and genetic (in other words, according to the principle of modality, on the one hand, and according to the principle of complexity or level of their construction, on the other).

As you know, a person has five senses. There are one more types of external sensations, since motor skills do not have a separate sense organ, but they also cause sensations. Therefore, a person can experience six types of external sensations: visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile (tactile), gustatory and kinesthetic sensations.

The main source of information about the outside world is visual analyzer. With its help, a person receives up to 80% of the total amount of information. The organ of visual sensation is the eye. At the level of sensations, he perceives information about light and color. Colors perceived by a person are divided into chromatic and achromatic. The former include the colors that make up the spectrum of the rainbow (i.e., the splitting of light - the well-known "Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant is sitting"). To the second - black, white and gray colors. Color shades containing about 150 smooth transitions from one to another are perceived by the eye depending on the parameters of the light wave.

visual sensations have a great influence on a person. All warm colors have a positive effect on a person's performance, excite him and cause a good mood. Cool colors calm a person. Dark colors have a depressing effect on the psyche. Colors can carry warning information: red indicates danger, yellow warns, green indicates safety, etc.

Next in importance in obtaining information is auditory analyzer. Sensations of sounds are usually divided into musical and noise. Their difference lies in the fact that musical sounds are created by periodic rhythmic vibrations of sound waves, and noises are created by non-rhythmic and irregular vibrations.

auditory sensations also have great importance In human life. The source of auditory sensations is a variety of sounds acting on the organ of hearing. Auditory sensations reflect noise, musical and speech sounds.

Sensations of noise and rustle signal the presence of objects and phenomena that emit sounds, their location, approach or removal. They can warn of danger and cause a certain emotional experience.

Musical sensations are characterized by emotional tone and melody. These sensations are formed in a person on the basis of the upbringing and development of an ear for music and are associated with the general musical culture of human society.

Speech sensations are the sensory basis of human speech activity. On the basis of speech sensations is formed phonemic awareness, thanks to which a person can distinguish and pronounce speech sounds. Phonemic hearing affects not only the development of oral and writing but also for learning a foreign language.

Many people have interesting feature- a combination of sound and visual sensations into one general sensation. In psychology, this phenomenon is called synesthesia. These are stable associations that arise between the objects of auditory perception, such as melodies, and color sensations. Often people can tell "what color" a given melody or word is.

Slightly less common is synesthesia, based on the association of color and smell. It is often inherent in people with a developed sense of smell. Such people can be found among tasters of perfumery products - not only a developed olfactory analyzer is important for them, but also synesthetic associations that allow the complex language of smells to be translated into a more universal language of color. In general, the olfactory analyzer, unfortunately, most often people are not very well developed. People like the hero of Patrick Suskind's novel The Perfumer are a rare and unique phenomenon.

Smell- a type of sensitivity that gives rise to specific sensations of smell. This is one of the most ancient, simple, but vital sensations. Anatomically, the olfactory organ is located in most living beings in the most advantageous place - in front, in a prominent part of the body. The path of the olfactory receptors to those brain structures where the impulses received from them are received and processed is the shortest. Nerve fibers, departing from the olfactory receptors, directly without intermediate switches enter the brain.

The part of the brain called the olfactory is also the most ancient, and the lower a living being is on the evolutionary ladder, the more space it occupies in the mass of the brain. In fish, for example, the olfactory brain covers almost the entire surface of the hemispheres, in dogs - about one-third of it, in humans, its relative share in the volume of all brain structures is about one-twentieth.

These differences correspond to the development of other sense organs and the vital importance that this type of sensation has for living beings. For some species of animals, the meaning of smell goes beyond the perception of smells. In insects and higher apes, the sense of smell also serves as a means of intraspecific communication.

Senses of taste- a reflection of the quality of food, providing an individual with information about whether a given substance can be ingested. Taste sensations (often together with smell) are caused by the action chemical properties substances dissolved in saliva or water, on taste buds (taste buds), p They are located in the corners of the tetrahedron (quadrangular pyramid), and all other taste sensations are located on the planes of the Tetrahedron and represent them as combinations of two or more basic taste sensations.

Skin sensitivity, or touch, is the most widely presented and widespread type of sensitivity. We all know the sensation that occurs when an object touches the surface of the skin, is not an elementary tactile sensation. It is the result of a complex combination of four other, simpler types of sensations: pressure, pain, heat and cold, and for each of them there is a specific type of receptors, unevenly located in different parts of the skin surface.

By examples kinesthetic sensations And sense of balance it can be confirmed that not all sensations are conscious. In everyday speech, which we use, there is no word for sensations coming, for example, from receptors located in muscles and working when they contract or stretch. Nevertheless, these sensations still exist, providing control of movements, an assessment of the direction and speed of movement, and the magnitude of the distance. They are formed automatically, enter the brain and regulate movements at a subconscious level. To designate them in science, a word is adopted that comes from the concept of "motion" - kinetics, and therefore they are called kinesthetic.

contact sensations caused by the direct impact of the object on the senses. Taste and touch are examples of contact sensation.

distant sensations reflect the qualities of objects located at some distance from the senses. These senses include hearing and sight. It should be noted that the sense of smell, according to many authors, occupies an intermediate position between contact and distant sensations, since formally olfactory sensations occur at a distance from the object, but at the same time, the molecules that characterize the smell of the object, with which the olfactory receptor contacts, undoubtedly belong to this subject. This is the duality of the position occupied by the sense of smell in the classification of sensations.

Which are manifested in the reflection of a separate property of objects. This includes various phenomena of the surrounding world and the internal states of the human body during the direct impact of material stimuli on receptors. Types of sensations will help determine the most common human stimuli.

The role of sensations in life

The role of sensations in human life can hardly be overestimated, because they are a unique source of all knowledge about the world. People feel the surrounding reality with the help of the senses, because they are the only channels through which the outside world penetrates the human consciousness.

Miscellaneous different types sensations are able, to one degree or another, to reflect certain properties of the environment. This includes sounds, lighting, taste and many other factors, thanks to which a person has the opportunity to navigate in the world around him.

The physiological basis of sensations is the nervous processes that, by their nature, appear during the action of a stimulus on an adequate analyzer. It, in turn, consists of receptors, nerve pathways and a central section. Here, a variety of signals are processed that come directly from the receptors to the cerebral cortex. It is safe to say that due to the receipt of impulses and stimuli into the brain, a person can quickly respond and perceive different kinds sensations.

How do sensations arise?

Human sensations arise only when a certain stimulus appears. It is worth noting that the provision of a certain effect on the receptor can lead to the appearance of an irritant. It transforms all processes into nervous excitation, which is transmitted to the central parts of the analyzer.

At this moment, a person can feel the taste, light, and many other factors. In this case, there should be a response of the body to a particular stimulus. It is transmitted from the brain to the sense organs by means of the centrifugal nerve. A person can move his own gaze and perform many other actions every second, perceiving irritable signals.

Basic classification of sensations

The main role of sensations in human life is to timely bring to the central nervous system all the necessary information. It is possible to single out the most common classification in which types of sensations are presented.

Feelings:

Exteroceptive: a) contact - temperature, tactile and taste; b) distant - visual, auditory and olfactory.

Proprioceptive: a) musculo-motor.

Interoceptive - they indicate the current state of all internal organs.

Certain sensations are able to reflect the properties of objects, phenomena of the external world, reflecting the state of the body, tactile, pain, as well as sensations of various origins. It is thanks to these possibilities that a person can distinguish colors and light.

Taste sensations

It can be said with certainty that taste sensations are determined by the various properties of surrounding things. They do not have a complete or objective classification. If we take into account the main complex of sensations that arise due to taste substances, then several main irritants can be distinguished - these are sour, salty, sweet and bitter foods.

Taste sensations often include olfactory sensations, and in some cases this may include a reaction to pressure, heat, cold, or pain. If we talk about caustic, astringent, tart taste qualities, then they are due to a whole range of different sensations. Thanks to a complex complex, a person is able to feel the taste of the food consumed.

Taste buds are able to express themselves during exposure to different taste areas. It turns out that a single substance has a relatively small molecular weight.

The value of the properties of sensations

The main properties of sensations should be reduced to adaptation or adaptations of various stimuli. All this happens until the moment when the reaction of a person is equal to the minimum indicators. These include sensitization, contrast, and interaction with various stimuli.

Varieties and properties of sensations can manifest themselves in varying degrees, that is, they depend on the individual physical and biological characteristics of a particular subject. But it is worth noting that all of these properties are significant in the field of a psychological point of view. It is worth noting that sensitization and adaptation are widely used today in psychotherapy in order to develop the ability of each person to more vividly and emotionally perceive various positive elements.

Exteroceptive and tactile sensations

All human sensations can be divided into exteroceptive and tactile. It should be noted that exteroceptive sensations provide the human body with all the necessary information that comes exclusively from the environment. In turn, people get a visual image with the help of the presence of a sufficient number of cells, which are called "koloboks" and "rods".

The "rods" help to provide fairly good vision at dusk, and the "koloboks" are responsible for color vision. The ear can respond to pressure fluctuations in the atmosphere, which are perceived as sound.

The taste buds, which are located on the papillae of the tongue, are able to perceive several main tastes - sour, salty, sweet and bitter. Human tactile sensations appear during the interaction of any mechanical stimulus and receptors. They are found on the skin of the fingers, palms, lips and many other organs.

Proprioceptive sensations provide important information about the current state of the muscles. They are able to quickly respond to the degree of contraction and muscle relaxation. It should be noted that proprioceptive sensations inform a person about the state of internal organs, their chemical composition, the presence of biological, useful or harmful substances.

Features of pain

Pain is an important biologically active protective device. It arises with the help of the destructive force of irritation. It is worth noting that pain can serve as an alarm about a possible danger to the human body. The sensitivity of pain is distributed over the surface of the skin, as well as in the internal organs. The distribution process is partial and uneven.

There are areas where a small number of pain receptors are located. Were held experimental studies, which made it possible to consider the distribution of pain points as dynamic and mobile. Pain sensations are the result of impacts exceeding the prescribed limit of intensity and frequency of impulses. Also, it all depends on the duration of a particular stimulus.

According to Frey's theory, different pain sensitivity has an independent, peripheral and central nervous apparatus.

Touch and pressure

Feelings and sensations of a person are also manifested in touch. classical theory skin sensitivity suggests that there is a recognition of special sensitive points that are characteristic of each type of sensation. In this case, there is no assumption about special receptor points that are necessary for pressure and touch. Pressure is felt by a person as a strong touch.

Presented are characterized by the features of touch and pressure. Therefore, it is possible to accurately determine their localization, which is developed as a result of experience during the participation of vision and muscle joints. It should be noted that a large number of receptors are characterized by rapid adaptation. That is why a person feels not only force pressure, but also a change in intensity.

Common sense characteristics

It should be noted that intensity is main characteristic human sensations, which is determined by the amount and strength of the acting stimulus. Certain sense organs have a special sensitivity to the displayed phenomena. Sensitivity can be described as the threshold of sensation.

The duration of sensation is a temporal characteristic that can be determined by the periodic effects of the stimulus on duration and intensity. But it is worth noting that many other features must be taken into account. During the impact of the stimulus on any sense organ, a certain sensation may not occur immediately, but after some time. This phenomenon can be characterized as latent or latent sensation time.

Olfactory sensations

The sense of smell is a type of chemical sensitivity. It is worth noting that in animals, the sense of smell and taste are one, they simply differentiate after a certain period of time. A few years ago, it was generally accepted that in a person's life, the sense of smell does not play particularly well. important role. If you look from the point of view of the knowledge of the external world, then sight, hearing and touch are in the first place and are more important.

But it is worth noting that the smell has a direct impact on the various functions of the autonomic nervous system. Also, with the help of this feeling, you can create a positive or negative emotional background that can color the general well-being of a person.

Touch

During touch, each person cognizes the material world, performs the process of movement, which can also turn into conscious purposeful feeling. It is in this way that a person in practice has the opportunity to know any objects.

Sensations of touch and pressure are typical traditional psychophysiological phenomena. They are associated with the thresholds of skin sensitivity, therefore they play only a subordinate role in the human mind, as well as its objective reality. The sense organs - skin, eyes, ears - allow a person to fully experience the world.

Depending on the nature of the stimuli acting on a given analyzer, and on the nature of the sensations arising in this case, separate types of sensations are distinguished.
First of all, it is necessary to single out a group of five types of sensations, which are a reflection of the properties of objects and phenomena of the external world - visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory and skin. The second group consists of three types of sensations that reflect the state of the body - organic, balance sensations, motor. The third group consists of two types of special sensations - tactile and pain, which are either a combination of several sensations (tactile.), Or sensations of different origin (pain).
visual sensations. Visual sensations - sensations of light and color - play a leading role in a person's knowledge of the external world. Scientists have found that 80 to 90 percent of information from the outside world enters the brain through the visual analyzer, 80 percent of all work operations are carried out under visual control. Thanks to visual sensations, we learn the shape and color of objects, their size, volume, remoteness. Visual sensations help a person navigate in space, coordinate movements. With the help of sight, a person learns to read and write. Books, cinema, theater, television reveal the whole world to us. No wonder the great naturalist Helmholtz believed that of all the human senses, the eye is the best gift and the most wonderful product of the creative forces of nature.
Visual sensations arise as a result of the action of light rays (electromagnetic waves) on the sensitive part of our eye. The retina is the light-sensitive organ of the eye. Light affects two types of photosensitive cells located in the retina - rods and ta. cones (Fig. 17) so named for their external shape. The light stimulus is converted into nervous process, which is transmitted along the optic nerve to the visual center of the cortex in the back of the brain. The number of photosensitive cells in the retina is very large - about 130 million rods and 7 million cones.
Rods are much more sensitive to light than cones, but cones make it possible to distinguish all the richness of shades of color, while rods are deprived of this. In daylight, only cones are active (such light is too bright for rods) - as a result, we see colors (there is a feeling of chromatic colors, that is, all colors of the spectrum). In low light (at dusk), the cones stop working (there is not enough light for them), and vision is carried out only by the rod apparatus - a person sees mostly gray colors (all transitions from white to black, i.e. achromatic colors). There is a disease in which the work of the rods is disrupted and a person sees very poorly or does not see anything at dusk and at night, and during the day his vision remains relatively normal. This disease is called “night blindness”, since chickens and pigeons do not have sticks and see almost nothing at dusk. Owls, bats, on the contrary, have only sticks in the retina - during the day these animals are almost blind.
Color has a different effect on the well-being and performance of a person. It has been established, for example, that the optimal coloring of the workplace can increase labor productivity by 20-25 percent. Color has a different effect on success academic work. The most optimal color for painting the walls of classrooms is orange-yellow, which creates a cheerful, upbeat mood, and green, which creates an even, calm mood. Red color excites; dark blue is depressing; both of them tire the eyes.
An irritant for the visual analyzer are light waves with a wavelength of 390 to 760 millimicrons (millionths of a millimeter). The sensation of different colors is caused by different wavelengths. Light with a wavelength of about 700 millimicrons gives a sensation of red, 580 millimicrons - yellow, 530 millimicrons - green, 450 millimicrons - blue and 400 millimicrons - violet.
In some cases, people have abnormal color perception (about 4 percent of men and 0.5 percent of women). The reason is heredity, diseases and eye injury. The most common is red-green blindness, called color blindness (after Dalton, who first described this phenomenon). Colorblind people cannot distinguish between red and green color perceive them as dirty yellow, wondering why other people designate this color with two words. Color blindness is a serious visual impairment that must be taken into account when choosing a profession. Colorblind cannot be
admitted to all professions of a driver's type (chauffeurs, machinists, pilots), they cannot be artists, painters, fashion designers. Very rarely there is a complete lack of sensitivity to chromatic colors: to such a person all objects seem to be painted in gray colors, only different light lots (the sky is light gray, the grass is gray, red flowers are dark gray, as in a black and white movie).
The sensation of color differs in lightness, depending on the amount of light that is reflected or absorbed by the surface of the colored objects. Surfaces painted in blue and yellow reflect light rays better than those painted in green or red. Black velvet reflects only 0.03 percent of the light, while white paper reflects 85 percent of the incident light.
If you paint the sectors of the circle in the seven primary colors of the spectrum, then with a quick rotation of the circle, all colors will merge and the circle will appear gray. This is because the image of the individual colors of the spectrum that arises in the visual analyzer does not immediately disappear after the cessation of the stimulus. It continues to be stored for some time (about 1/5 s) in the form of a so-called sequential image. Thus, the sensation of flickering of individual stimuli disappears and their merging occurs. The demonstration of films is based on this, where the speed of 24 frames per second is perceived as a drawing that has come to life.
A person is able to see objects that are at different distances from the eye. The optical properties of the eye change during the transition from free looking into the distance to looking at close objects. This ability of the eye to adapt itself to seeing clearly at different distances is called the accommodation of the eye.
The less light, the worse a person sees. Therefore, you can not read in poor lighting. At dusk, it is necessary to turn on electric lighting earlier so as not to cause excessive stress in the work of the eye, which can be harmful to vision, and contribute to the development of myopia in schoolchildren.
The significance of lighting conditions in the origin of myopia is indicated by special studies: in schools located on wide streets, there are usually fewer nearsighted people than in schools located on narrow streets built up with houses. In schools where the ratio of window area to floor area in classrooms was 15 percent, there were more nearsighted people than in schools where the ratio was 20 percent.
Auditory sensations. The irritant for the auditory analyzer is sound waves - longitudinal vibrations of air particles propagating in all directions from the sound source. When air vibrations enter the ear, they cause the eardrum to vibrate. The oscillation of the latter through the middle ear is transmitted to the inner ear, in which there is a special apparatus - the cochlea - for the perception of sounds. The human hearing organ responds to sounds in the range from 16 to 20,000 vibrations per second. The ear is most sensitive to sounds of about 1000 vibrations per second.
The brain end of the auditory analyzer is located in the temporal lobes of the cortex. Hearing, like vision, plays an important role in human life. Ability depends on hearing speech communication. With hearing loss, people usually lose the ability to speak as well. Speech can be restored, but on the basis of muscle control, which in this case will replace auditory control. This is done through special training. Therefore, some deaf-deaf people can speak satisfactorily without hearing sounds at all.
There are three characteristics of auditory sensations. Auditory sensations reflect the pitch of the sound, which depends on the frequency of vibrations of sound waves, the loudness, which depends on the amplitude of their vibrations, and timbre - a reflection of the form of vibrations of sound waves. The timbre of sound is the quality that distinguishes sounds that are equal in pitch and loudness. Different timbres differ from each other in the voices of people, the sounds of individual musical instruments.
All auditory sensations can be reduced to three types - speech, musical and noise. Musical sounds - singing and sounds of most musical instruments. Examples of noises are motor noise, the rumble of a moving train, crackling typewriter etc. The sounds of speech combine musical sounds (vowels) and noise. ”(Consonants).
A person quickly develops phonemic hearing for sounds mother tongue. It is more difficult to perceive a foreign language, since each language differs in its phonemic features. The ear of many foreigners simply does not distinguish the words "Flame", "dust", "drank" - the words for the Russian ear are completely dissimilar. Inhabitant South-East Asia will not hear the difference in the words "boots" and "dogs".
Strong and prolonged noise causes significant loss of nervous energy in people, damages the cardiovascular system - absent-mindedness appears, hearing decreases, performance decreases, and nervous disorders are observed. Noise has a negative effect on mental activity. Therefore, special measures are being taken in our country to combat noise. In particular, in a number of cities it is forbidden to give automobile and railway signals unnecessarily, it is forbidden to break the silence after 11 pm.
Taste sensations. Taste sensations are caused by the action on taste buds of substances dissolved in saliva or water. A dry piece of sugar placed on a dry tongue will not give any taste sensations.
Taste buds are taste buds located on the surface of the tongue, pharynx and palate. There are four kinds; accordingly, there are four elementary taste sensations: the sensation of sweet, sour, salty and bitter: The variety of taste depends on the nature of the combination of these qualities and on the addition of olfactory sensations to the taste sensations: by combining sugar, salt, quinine and oxalic acid in different proportions, it was possible to simulate some of the taste sensations.
Olfactory sensations. Olfactory organs are olfactory cells located in the nasal cavity. Irritants for the olfactory analyzer are particles of odorous substances that enter the nasal cavity along with the air.
At modern man olfactory sensations play a relatively minor role. But with damage to hearing and vision, the sense of smell, along with other remaining intact analyzers, becomes especially important. The blindly deaf use their sense of smell, just as the sighted use their eyesight: they identify familiar places by smell and recognize familiar people.
Skin sensations. There are two types of skin sensations - tactile (sensations of touch) and temperature (sensations of heat and cold). Accordingly, on the surface of the skin there are different types of nerve endings, each of which gives the sensation of only touch, only cold, only heat. The sensitivity of different parts of the skin to each of these types of irritations is different. Touch is most felt on the tip of the tongue and on the fingertips; the back is less sensitive to touch. The skin of those parts of the body that are usually covered by clothing is most sensitive to the effects of heat and cold.
A peculiar type of skin sensations is vibrational sensations that occur when the surface of the body is exposed to air vibrations produced by moving or oscillating bodies. In normally hearing people, this type of sensation is poorly developed. However, with hearing loss, especially in the deaf-deaf, this type of sensation develops noticeably and serves to orient such people in the world around them. Through vibrational sensations, they feel music, even recognize familiar melodies, feel a knock on the door, talk by tapping Morse code with their foot and perceiving floor shaking, they learn about approaching transport on the street, etc.
Organic sensations Organic sensations include sensations of hunger, thirst, satiety, nausea, suffocation, etc. The corresponding receptors are located in the walls of internal organs: the esophagus, stomach, and intestines. During the normal functioning of the internal organs, individual sensations merge into one sensation, which constitutes the general well-being of a person.
Feelings of balance. The organ of balance sensation is the vestibular apparatus of the inner ear, which gives signals about the movement and position of the head. The normal functioning of the organs of balance is very important for a person. For example, when determining the suitability for a specialty of a pilot, especially an astronaut pilot, the activity of the balance organs is always checked. The organs of balance are closely connected with other internal organs. With a strong overexcitation of the balance organs, nausea and vomiting are observed (the so-called sea or air sickness). However, with regular training, the stability of the balance organs increases significantly.
Motor sensations. Motor, or kinesthetic, sensations are sensations of movement and position of body parts. Receptors for the motor analyzer are located in muscles, ligaments, tendons, and articular surfaces. Motor sensations signal the degree of muscle contraction and the position of parts of our body, for example, how much the arm is bent at the shoulder, elbow, etc.
Tactile sensations. Tactile sensations are a combination, a combination of skin and motor sensations when palpating objects, that is, when a moving hand touches them. The sense of touch is of great importance in human labor activity, especially when performing labor operations that require great accuracy. With the help of touch, palpation is the knowledge of the world by a small child. This is one of important sources obtaining information about the surrounding objects.
In people deprived of sight, touch is one of the most important means of orientation and cognition. As a result of practice, it reaches great perfection. Such people can deftly peel potatoes, thread a needle, do simple modeling, even sewing.
Pain sensations. Pain sensations are of a different nature. Firstly, there are special receptors (“pain points”) located on the surface of the skin and in the internal organs and muscles. Mechanical damage to the skin, muscles, diseases of internal organs give a feeling of pain. Secondly, sensations of pain arise under the action of a superstrong stimulus on any analyzer. Blinding light, deafening sound, intense cold or heat radiation, a very sharp odor also cause pain.
Painful sensations are very unpleasant, but they are our reliable guard, warning us of danger, signaling trouble in the body. If it were not for the pain, a person would often not notice a serious ailment or dangerous injuries. Not for nothing did the ancient Greeks say: "Pain is the watchdog of health." Complete insensitivity to pain is a rare anomaly, and it brings a person not joy, but serious trouble.

: I) by the presence or absence of direct contact with the stimulus that causes sensation; 2) at the location of the receptors; 3) according to the time of occurrence in the course of evolution; 4) according to the modality (kind) of the stimulus.

According to the presence or absence of direct contact of the receptor with the stimulus that causes sensation, they are isolatedremote and contactreception. Vision, hearing, smell are related to distant reception. These types of sensations provide orientation in the nearest environment. Taste, pain, tactile sensations - contact.

According to the modality of the stimulus sensations are divided into visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, static and kinesthetic, temperature, pain, thirst, hunger.

Let us briefly describe each of these types of sensations.

visual sensations. They arise as a result of exposure to light rays (electromagnetic waves) on the sensitive part of our eye - the retina, which is the receptor of the visual analyzer. Light affects two types of light-sensitive cells in the retina - rods and cones, so named for their external shape.

auditory sensations. These sensations are also distant and are also of great importance in human life. Thanks to, a person hears speech, has the ability to communicate with other people. Irritants for auditory sensations are sound waves - longitudinal vibrations of air particles, propagating in all directions from the sound source. The human hearing organ responds to sounds in the range from 16 to 20,000 vibrations per second.

Auditory sensations reflect the pitch of the sound, which depends on the frequency of the sound waves; loudness, which depends on the amplitude of their oscillations; timbre of sound - forms of vibrations of sound waves.

All auditory sensations can be reduced to three types - speech, music, noise.

vibration sensations. Vibration sensitivity is adjacent to auditory sensations. They have a common nature of reflected physical phenomena. Vibration sensations reflect vibrations of an elastic medium. This type of sensitivity is figuratively called "contact hearing". No specific human vibration receptors have been found. At present, it is believed that all tissues of the body can reflect the vibrations of the external and internal environment. In humans, vibrational sensitivity is subordinated to auditory and visual.

Olfactory sensations. They refer to distant sensations that reflect the smells of objects around us. Olfactory organs are olfactory cells located in the upper part of the nasal cavity.

The group of contact sensations, as already noted, includes taste, skin (pain, tactile, temperature).

Taste sensations. Caused by the action on the taste buds of substances dissolved in saliva or water. Taste buds - taste buds located on the surface of the tongue, pharynx, palate - distinguish between sensations of sweet, sour, salty and bitter.

Skin sensations. There are several analyzer systems in the skin: tactile(sensation of touch) temperature(feelings of cold and heat) painful. The system of tactile sensitivity is unevenly distributed throughout the body. But most of all, the accumulation of tactile cells is observed on the palm, on the fingertips and on the lips. Tactile sensations of the hand, combined with musculo-articular sensitivity, form touch- a specifically human, labor-developed system of cognitive activity of the hand.

If you touch the surface of the body, then press on it, the pressure can cause painful feeling. Thus, tactile sensitivity provides knowledge about the qualities of an object, and pain sensations signal the body about the need to move away from the stimulus and have a pronounced emotional tone.

The third type of skin sensitivity is temperature sensations - is associated with the regulation of heat exchange between the body and environment. The distribution of heat and cold receptors on the skin is uneven. The back is most sensitive to cold, the chest is the least sensitive.

The position of the body in space is signaled static feeling. Static sensitivity receptors are located in the vestibular apparatus of the inner ear. Sudden and frequent changes in body position relative to the ground plane can lead to dizziness.

A special place and role in human life and activity is occupied by interoceptive(organic) sensations that arise from receptors located in the internal organs and signal the functioning of the latter. These sensations form the organic feeling (well-being) of a person.

Auditory sensations 72

The special significance of hearing in humans is associated with the perception of speech and music.

Auditory sensations are a reflection of sound waves affecting the auditory receptor, which are generated by the sounding body and represent a variable condensation and rarefaction of air.

Sound waves have, firstly, different amplitude fluctuations. Under the amplitude of oscillation is meant the greatest deviation of the sounding body from the state of equilibrium or rest. The larger the amplitude of the oscillation, the stronger the sound, and, conversely, the smaller the amplitude, the weaker the sound. The strength of the sound is directly proportional to the square of the amplitude. This force also depends on the distance of the ear from the sound source and on the medium in which the sound propagates. To measure the strength of sound, there are special devices that make it possible to measure it in units of energy.

Sound waves are distinguished, secondly, by frequency or the duration of the oscillation. The wavelength is inversely proportional to the number of oscillations and directly proportional to the period of oscillation of the sound source. Waves of a different number of oscillations in 1 s or during the period of oscillation give sounds of different heights: waves with oscillations of a large frequency (and a small period of oscillations) are reflected in the form of high sounds, waves with oscillations of a low frequency (and a large period of oscillations) are reflected in the form of low sounds.

The sound waves caused by the sounding body, the sound source, differ, thirdly, form oscillations, i.e., the shape of that periodic curve in which the abscissas are proportional to time, and the ordinates are proportional to the removal of the oscillating point from its equilibrium position. The shape of the vibrations of a sound wave is reflected in the timbre of the sound - that specific quality by which sounds of the same height and strength on different instruments (piano, violin, flute, etc.) differ from each other.

The relationship between the shape of the vibration of a sound wave and the timbre is not unambiguous. If two tones have a different timbre, then we can definitely say that they are caused by vibrations of different shapes, but not vice versa. Tones can have exactly the same timbre, and, however, their form of vibrations can be different. In other words, the waveforms are more varied and numerous than the tones heard by the ear.

Auditory sensations can be evoked as periodical oscillatory processes, and non-periodic with irregularly changing unstable frequency and amplitude of oscillations. The former are reflected in musical sounds, the latter in noises.

The musical sound curve can be decomposed purely mathematically according to the Fourier method into separate, superimposed sinusoids. Any sound curve, being a complex oscillation, can be represented as the result of more or less sinusoidal oscillations, with the number of oscillations per second increasing, as a series of integers 1, 2, 3, 4. The lowest tone corresponding to 1 is called the main one. It has the same period as the complex sound. The remaining simple tones, which have twice, three times, four times, etc., more frequent vibrations, are called upper harmonic, or partial (partial), or overtones.

All audible sounds are divided into noises and musical sounds. The former reflect non-periodic oscillations of unstable frequency and amplitude, the latter - periodic oscillations. Between musical sounds and there is no noise, however, a sharp edge. The acoustic component of the noise often has a pronounced musical character and contains a variety of tones that are easily picked up by an experienced ear. The whistle of the wind, the squeal of a saw, various hissing noises with high tones included in them are sharply different from the hum and murmur noises characterized by low tones. The absence of a sharp boundary between tones and noises explains the fact that many composers are perfectly able to depict various noises with musical sounds (the murmur of a stream, the buzzing of a spinning wheel in the romances of F. Schubert, the sound of the sea, the clanging of weapons by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, etc. ).

In sounds human speech both noises and musical sounds are also presented.

The main properties of any sound are: 1) his volume 2) height and 3) timbre.

1. Volume.

Loudness depends on the strength, or amplitude, of the vibrations of the sound wave. The power of sound and loudness are not equivalent concepts. The strength of sound objectively characterizes the physical process, regardless of whether it is perceived by the listener or not; loudness - the quality of the perceived sound. If we arrange the volumes of the same sound in the form of a series increasing in the same direction as the strength of the sound, and be guided by the steps of the increase in volume perceived by the ear (with a continuous increase in the strength of the sound), then it turns out that the loudness grows much more slowly than the strength of the sound.

According to the Weber-Fechner law, the loudness of a certain sound will be proportional to the logarithm of the ratio of its strength J to the strength of the same sound at the threshold of hearing J 0 :

In this equality, K is a proportionality factor, and L expresses a value characterizing the loudness of a sound whose strength is equal to J; it is commonly referred to as the sound level.

If the proportionality coefficient, which is an arbitrary value, is taken equal to one, then the sound level will be expressed in units called belov:

In practice, it turned out to be more convenient to use units 10 times smaller; These units are called decibels. The coefficient K in this case, obviously, equals 10. Thus:

The minimum increase in volume perceived by the human ear is approximately 1dB.<…>

It is known that the Weber-Fechner law loses its force with weak stimuli; therefore, the loudness level of very weak sounds does not quantify their subjective loudness.

According to latest works, when determining the difference threshold, one should take into account the change in the pitch of sounds. For low tones, the volume rises much faster than for high tones.

The quantitative measurement of the loudness directly perceived by our hearing is not as accurate as the auditory estimate of the pitch. However, dynamic designations have long been used in music, which serve to determine the magnitude of loudness in practice. These are the designations: prr(piano-pianissimo), pp(pianissimo), R(piano), tr(mezzo-piano), mf(mezzo forte), ff(fortissimo), fff(forte-fortissimo). Consecutive designations on this scale mean approximately doubling the volume.

A person can, without any preliminary training, evaluate changes in loudness by a certain (small) number of times (by 2, 3, 4 times). In this case, doubling the volume is obtained approximately just with an increase of about 20 dB. Further evaluation of the increase in volume (more than 4 times) is no longer possible. Studies on this issue have given results that are sharply at odds with the Weber-Fechner law. 73 They also showed significant individual differences in the assessment of loudness doubling.

When exposed to sound in the hearing aid, adaptation processes occur that change its sensitivity. However, in the field of auditory sensations, adaptation is very small and reveals significant individual deviations. The effect of adaptation is especially strong when there is a sudden change in the strength of the sound. This is the so-called contrast effect.

Loudness is usually measured in decibels. S.N. Rzhevkin points out, however, that the decibel scale is not satisfactory for quantification natural volume. For example, the noise on a full-speed metro train is estimated at 95 dB, while the ticking of a clock at a distance of 0.5 m is estimated at 30 dB. Thus, on the decibel scale, the ratio is only 3, while for immediate sensation, the first noise is almost immeasurably greater than the second.<… >

2. Height.

The pitch of a sound reflects the frequency of the sound wave. Not all sounds are perceived by our ear. Both ultrasonics (sounds with a high frequency) and infrasounds (sounds with very slow vibrations) remain beyond our hearing. The lower limit of hearing in humans is approximately 15–19 vibrations; the upper one is approximately 20,000, and in some people the sensitivity of the ear can give various individual deviations. Both limits are variable, the upper one in particular depending on age; in older people, sensitivity to high tones gradually decreases. In animals, the upper limit of hearing is much higher than in humans; in a dog it goes up to 38,000 Hz (cycles per second).

When exposed to frequencies above 15,000 Hz, the ear becomes much less sensitive; the ability to distinguish pitch is lost. At 19,000 Hz, only sounds that are a million times more intense than at 14,000 Hz are extremely audible. With an increase in the intensity of high-pitched sounds, there is an unpleasant tickling sensation in the ear (touch of sound), and then a feeling of pain. The area of ​​auditory perception covers more than 10 octaves and is limited from above by the threshold of touch, from below by the threshold of audibility. Within this area lie all the sounds perceived by the ear of various strengths and heights. The smallest force is required to perceive sounds from 1000 to 3000 Hz. The ear is the most sensitive in this area. G.L.F. Helmholtz also pointed out the increased sensitivity of the ear in the region of 2000–3000 Hz; he explained this circumstance by his own tone of the tympanic membrane.

The value of the threshold for distinguishing, or the difference threshold, height (according to T.Per, V.Straub, B.M.Teplov) in the middle octaves for most people is in the range from 6 to 40 cents (a cent is a hundredth of a tempered semitone). The musically gifted children examined by L.V. Blagonadezhina had thresholds of 6-21 cents.

There are actually two height discrimination thresholds: 1) simple discrimination threshold and 2) direction threshold (W. Preyer et al.). Sometimes, with small differences in pitch, the subject notices a difference in pitch, without, however, being able to tell which of the two sounds is higher.

Pitch, as it is usually perceived in noises and speech sounds, includes two different components - the pitch itself and the timbre characteristic.

In the sounds of a complex composition, the change in pitch is associated with a change in some timbre properties. This is explained by the fact that with an increase in the frequency of oscillations, the number of frequency tones available to our hearing aid inevitably decreases. In noise and speech hearing, these two height components are not differentiated. The isolation of pitch in the proper sense of the word from its timbre components is hallmark musical hearing (B.M. Teplov). It takes place in the process historical development music as a certain type of human activity.

One version of the two-component theory of pitch was developed by F. Brentano, and following him, based on the principle of octave similarity of sounds, G. Reves distinguishes between the quality and lightness of sound. By the quality of sound, he understands such a feature of the pitch, thanks to which we distinguish sounds within an octave. Under lordship - such a feature of its height, which distinguishes the sounds of one octave from the sounds of another. So, all "to" are qualitatively the same, but they are different in lightness. Even K. Stumpf subjected this concept to sharp criticism. Of course, there is an octave similarity (as well as a fifth similarity), but it does not determine any component of pitch.

M. McMayer, K. Stumpf and especially W. Köhler gave a different interpretation of the two-component theory of height, distinguishing in it the actual height and the timbre characteristic of the height (lightness). However, these researchers (as well as E.A. Maltseva) distinguished the two components of height in a purely phenomenal way: they correlated two different and, in part, even heterogeneous properties of sensation with the same objective characteristic of a sound wave. B.M. Teplov pointed out the objective basis of this phenomenon, which consists in the fact that with an increase in height, the number of partial tones accessible to the ear changes. Therefore, the difference in timbre coloring of sounds of different pitches is actually only in complex sounds; in simple tones, it represents the result of transference. 74

Due to this interrelation between the actual pitch and timbre coloring, not only different instruments differ in timbre from each other, but also sounds of different pitch on the same instrument differ from each other not only in pitch, but also in timbre coloring. This affects the relationship of various aspects of sound - its pitch and timbre properties.

3. Timbre.

Timbre is understood as a special character or coloring of sound, depending on the relationship of its partial tones. Timbre reflects the acoustic composition of a complex sound, i.e., the number, order and relative strength of the partial tones (harmonic and non-harmonic) included in its composition.

According to Helmholtz, timbre depends on which upper harmonic tones are mixed in with the fundamental, and on the relative strength of each of them.

In our auditory sensations, the timbre of a complex sound plays a very significant role. Partial tones (overtones), or, in the terminology of N.A. Garbuzov, upper natural overtones, are also of great importance in the perception of harmony.

Timbre, like harmony, reflects the sound, which in its acoustic composition is consonance. Since this consonance is perceived as a single sound without acoustically distinguishing the incoming partial tones in it, the sound composition is reflected in the form of a sound timbre. Since hearing singles out partial tones of a complex sound, a perception of harmony arises. In reality, in the perception of music, there is usually a place for both. The struggle and unity of these two mutually contradictory tendencies is to analyze sound as consonance and perceive consonance as a single sound specific timbre coloration - is an essential aspect of any real perception of music.

Timbre coloring acquires a special richness due to the so-called vibrato(K.Sishor), which gives the sound of a human voice, violin, etc. great emotional expressiveness. Vibrato reflects periodic changes (pulsations) in the pitch and intensity of a sound.

Vibrato plays a significant role in music and singing; it is also represented in speech, especially emotional speech. Since vibrato is present in all peoples and in children, especially musical ones, occurring in them regardless of training and exercise, it is obviously a physiologically conditioned manifestation of emotional tension, a way of expressing feelings.

Vibrato in the human voice as an expression of emotionality has probably existed since there was a sound speech and people use sounds to express their feelings. 75 Vocal vibrato arises as a result of the periodic contraction of paired muscles, observed during nervous discharge in the activity of various muscles, not only vocal ones. Tension and discharge, expressed in the form of pulsation, are homogeneous with the trembling caused by emotional stress.

There is good vibrato and bad vibrato. Bad vibrato is one in which there is an excess of tension or a violation of the periodicity. Good vibrato is a periodic pulsation that includes a certain pitch, intensity and timbre and gives the impression of a pleasant flexibility, fullness, softness and richness of tone.

The fact that vibrato, being due to changes in pitch and intensity sound is perceived as timbre coloration, again reveals the internal interconnection of the various aspects of sound. When analyzing the pitch, it has already been found that the pitch in its traditional sense, that is, that side of the sound sensation, which is determined by the frequency of vibrations, includes not only the pitch, in the proper sense of the word, but also the timbre component of lightness. Now it turns out that, in turn, in timbre coloration - in vibrato - the height is reflected, as well as the intensity of the sound. Various musical instruments differ from each other in timbre characteristics. 76<…>

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