Humans are amazing sensors! This course will help you understand our sensing capabilities including taste, olfaction, tactile senses, vision, and audition. The course will explain at a high-level the anatomy, physiology, and chemistry of the senses and give you an appreciation of how senses are transmitted to, and experienced by, the brain. You’ll learn by experience to assess cases such as dysfunctions in olfaction or tactile temperature adaptation. Optional podcast conversations with experts in the field are included each week to provide additional insight on our senses and sensory research.
Sensory Science: The Senses
Sensory Science: The Senses
This course is part of Essentials of Sensory Science Specialization
Instructor: Rebecca Bleibaum
Included with 
Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
Beginner level
No prior experience required
13 hours to complete
3 weeks at 4 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace
Details to know
Shareable certificate
Add to your LinkedIn profile
Assessments
4 assignments
Taught in English
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This course is part of the Essentials of Sensory Science Specialization
When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.
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There are 4 modules in this course
In this module, we will begin our discussion on the senses starting with taste. We will also discuss primary tastes, anatomy, physiology, and chemistry of taste. We will then touch on transducer and neural effects including receptor types, stimulus-receptor transducer mechanisms, neural channels, neural codes, and cortical cell types and mechanisms. We will do an activity on taste adaptation and finish the module with an optional podcast conversation with Joel Sidel. Let's get started.
What's included
11 videos7 readings1 assignment4 discussion prompts
In this module, we will continue discussing the senses focusing on olfaction and the tactile sensations. We will discuss the chemical nature of odorous stimuli, the anatomy of the olfactory system, and smell transduction. Let's begin.
What's included
6 videos2 readings1 assignment
In this module, we will discuss retronasal olfaction versus orthonasal olfaction, dysfunctions in olfaction, and the basic system to describe the tactile senses. We will also do an activity on temperature adaptation. This module will end with an optional podcast conversation with Dr. Ann Noble. Let's begin.
What's included
4 videos4 readings1 assignment2 discussion prompts
In this final module, we will continue discussing the senses focusing on vision and audition. At the end of the lesson, you will be able to describe the parts of the eye and parts of the retina. We will explain how receptor functions work, describe how to explain optical illusions, and go through aspects of depth perception. Finally, we will go into concepts surrounding hearing anatomy, transduction and adaptation. We will finish off this module with an optional podcast conversation with Dr. Armand Cardello.
What's included
10 videos3 readings1 assignment3 discussion prompts
Instructor
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