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1) An analytic sense uses direct, analytic sensation from environmental stimuli to draw conclusions about that environment. For instance, there are chemicals in scents that directly interact with receptors in the nose, and the activation of those neurons informs the brain of the presence of those chemicals and hence the presence of that particular smell in the environment. Ditto for HCl activating salt detectors signalling the brain "this is salty."
Sight, by contrast, is a synthetic sense because no direct inferences about the world are drawn from the activation of light-detecting nuerons (other than, perhaps, "it's light" or "its dark" as when the eyelids are closed). Rather, the activation patterns on the light-detecting neurons are sent through a remarkable and amazingly complex set of nueral pathways that assemble the signals into an ever-more complex aggregation of visual stimuli. In other words, there is nothing inherant in the activation of a particular set of light-detecting neurons that acticates "lamp" in the brain - the same pattern might be a bowling pin, or whatever. Rather, by parsing, filtering, interpolating, interpreting, and combining that direct neural data with other information ("I'm in an illuminated room at night") and memories, the direct activation of light-detecting nuerons is synthesized into the visual sensation of "lamp."
I don't know 2 but I'll take a whack at 3 if no-one else posts in a while. |
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