Sensation

In medicine and physiology, sensation refers to the registration of an incoming (afferent) nerve impulse in that part of the brain called the sensorium, which is capable of such perception. Therefore, the awareness of a stimulus as a result of its perception by sensory receptors. (Sensory is here synonymous with sensation.) The word "sensation" comes (as does the term "sensorium") from the Latin sensus, "the faculty of perceiving."

* * *

A feeling; the translation into consciousness of the effects of a stimulus exciting any of the organs of sense. [L. sensatio, perception, feeling, fr. sentio, to perceive, feel]

- delayed s. a s. that is not perceived until the lapse of an appreciable interval following the application of the stimulus.

- general s. a s. referred to the body as a whole rather than to any particular part.

- girdle s. SYN: zonesthesia.

- primary s. a s. that is the direct result of a stimulus.

- referred s. a s. felt in one place in response to a stimulus applied in another.

* * *

sen·sa·tion sen-'sā-shən, sən- n

1 a) a mental process (as seeing, hearing, or smelling) due to immediate bodily stimulation often as distinguished from awareness of the process compare PERCEPTION

b) awareness (as of heat or pain) due to stimulation of a sense organ

c) a state of consciousness of a kind usu. due to physical objects or internal bodily changes <a burning \sensation in his chest>

2) something (as a physical object, sense-datum, pain, or afterimage) that causes or is the object of sensation

* * *

n.

a feeling: the result of messages from the body's sensory receptors registering in the brain as information about the environment. Messages from exteroceptor are interpreted as specific sensations - smell, taste, temperature, pain, etc. - in the conscious mind. Messages from interoceptor, however, rarely reach the consciousness to produce sensation.

* * *

sen·sa·tion (sen-saґshən) [L. sensatio] an impression conveyed by an afferent nerve to the sensorium.