Sensory systems

Abstract

Our understanding of sensory systems has grown impressively in recent years as a result of intense efforts to characterize the mechanisms underlying perception. A large body of evidence has accrued regarding the processes through which sensory information at the biochemical, electrophysiological, and systems levels contributes to the conscious experience of a stimulus. Our efforts to understand the function of sensory systems have been aided by the development of new techniques, including powerful methods of molecular biology, refined short- and long-term approaches to recording from single and multiple neurons, and non-invasive neuroimaging techniques that allow us to study activity within the human brain while subjects perform a variety of cognitive tasks. In future research, the last approach is likely to form a bridge between the large body of electrophysiological knowledge acquired in animal experiments and that currently being obtained in human imaging research.