In the last decade, a heated discussion about the distinction between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems errupted. These are commonly known as the “fight or flight” versus the “rest and digest” systems with roles like increasing or decreasing heart rate and pupil size (background on the divisions of the nervous system below). For about a […]
The sensory system that processes touch is called the somatosensory system. This system also detects and relays information about proprioception (how your joints are positioned), temperature, internal organs, and some chemical stimuli (like capsaicin, found in hot chili peppers). All this sounds relatively straight forward, but this field has been changing really rapidly! (1) Textbooks […]
Primates have a secondary gustatory (taste) cortex in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) [1]. I thought that this was odd, given that (1) the OFC is associated with understanding consequences and (2) the prefrontal cortex (where OFC is located) is generally not associated with early sensory processing. (Instead, this area is associated with what we consider […]
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