The nervous system is responsible for sensing the external and internal environments of an organism, and for inducing muscle movement. Human sensation is achieved through the stimulation of specialized neurons, organized into five different modalities—touch, balance, taste, smell, hearing, and vision. The touch modality includes pressure, vibration, temperature, pain, and itch. Some animals are also able to sense magnetism and electric fields. Modality, timing, intensity, and location of the stimulus are the four features that allow the brain to identify a unique sensation.

Sensation Receptors

The neurons specialized to detect sensation are also called receptors because they are designed to receive information from the environment. Each receptor responds only to a stimulus that falls within a defined region, called its receptive field. The size of the stimulus can affect the number of receptors that respond, and the strength of the stimulus can affect how much...