Sensory Physiology Research Paper

Sensory Physiology came from the idea that the knowledge of the brain comes from the sensory information it receives. In other words, to understand the brain the senses have to be understood first ( Benjamin, 2019, p.26). This leads to physiology to focus on the senses, color vision, and pitch perception. 

Color vision became a focused intense research after 1850, partly due to the advance of optical technology. With this the trichromatic theory and the opponent-process theory took place. These theories explain the sensory information in connection to the understanding of the mind. In 16960, research-supported this by finding that the trichromatic theory was explaining color vision perception at the retina level, and the opponent-process theory as the way information was processed in the thalamus. The development of these theories helped the physiology field support the science of psychology diversion from other fields into its focused field (Benjamin, 2019, p.27).

Another physiology subject that led to the early science of psychology was pitch perception, also known as auditory frequency (Benjamin, 2019, p.27). Two main theories in pitch perception that were later continued by psychologists are the resonance theory (mostly known as place theory) and the frequency theory. The resonance theory stated that different frequencies would impact differently at different places of the basilar membrane, in the cochlea of the inner ear. The frequency theory argued that the firing of impulses ( in the basilar membrane) would match the frequency of incoming sound. Both of the present theories were modified but are still considered valid in major auditory aspects (Benjamin, 2019, p.28). The perception of the auditory sense was important to explore under the theory of understanding senses to understand the mind.

The research of color vision and pitch perception and their presented theories were a great leap forward in understanding the brain. This opened groundbreaking research that was later supported and further explored by psychologists under their new field of psychology initially called physiological psychology (Benjamin, 2019, p.28).