Home Forum Dictionary Articles Tutorials Books Directory Share your work

Edit page | Page history | Printable version

Dictionary » S » Stimulus

Stimulus

Definition

noun, plural: stimuli

(1) (physiology) A detectable change in the internal or external environment.

(2) (physiology) That which influences or causes a temporary increase of physiological activity or response in the whole organism or in any of its parts.

(3) That which can evoke a response or has an influence on a system to act.


Supplement

Any of the five senses will respond to a particular stimulus. Based on the stimuli applied to the sensory organs, there are two kinds of stimuli:


Word origin: From Latin stimulus (“‘goad, prick’”)

Related terms:


Please contribute to this project, if you have more information about this term feel free to edit this page



Results from our forum


Stimulus intensity?!!!

How is stimulus intensity encoded in your (all-or-nothing) Action Potentials? e.g. the strength of a handshake in a sensory neuron. Thanks :)

See entire post
by chutneymon
Fri Oct 07, 2011 3:50 pm
 
Forum: Cell Biology
Topic: Stimulus intensity?!!!
Replies: 1
Views: 35

Re: Sound and how the brain reacts to it

... moving into my shoulders and the top of my head and top of my arms, then down the back of my spine. That's pretty much how far it goes, but if the stimulus continues, the tingling gets more intense all over. I have always called it "chills," but I do not see nor feel actual goosebumps, ...

See entire post
by chillsdownmyspine
Thu Aug 18, 2011 10:36 pm
 
Forum: Human Biology
Topic: Sound and how the brain reacts to it
Replies: 41
Views: 10452

Re:

... that evoke a response from neural networks. An interesting behavior in neural networks is their lack of sensitivity to the idea of too much stimulus. You can't have too much beauty. You are wrong when you say we humans don't pollinate flowers. For the last 10000 years or so we have been ...

See entire post
by charles brough
Wed Aug 17, 2011 8:10 pm
 
Forum: Evolution
Topic: Why are flowers "beautiful"?
Replies: 15
Views: 2006

Is DNA living or non-living thing?? get the answer here

One major reason that DNA is non-living is that it has no noticeable response to a stimulus. Think about it, DNA does not adapt to drastic changes in environment like it usually does. If you assume that DNA is living by your reasons, then a virus can also be considered ...

See entire post
by Taylosr
Wed May 11, 2011 1:48 am
 
Forum: Molecular Biology
Topic: Is DNA living or non-living thing?? get the answer here
Replies: 19
Views: 8792

The Heart

... I don't know how much you know about nerve signal transmission! Suffice to say if a sufficient amount of ion movement is caused by whatever stimulus it launches an action potential, and this will cause the muscle to contract. The AP is an absolute value (it's either ON or OFF) so there's ...

See entire post
by Babybel56
Sat Apr 23, 2011 8:26 pm
 
Forum: Human Biology
Topic: The Heart
Replies: 6
Views: 995
View all matching forum results

This page was last modified 08:00, 20 May 2009. This page has been accessed 47,864 times. 
What links here | Related changes | Permanent link