Sensory Processing

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Sensory Processing, formerly called sensory integration, is how the brain receives, organizes, transmits, and responds to sensory information. Research finds sensation is processed in different brain regions in sensory-specific cortices — areas in the occipital cortex are tied to vision and those on the superior temporal gyrus receive auditory inputs. Neuro-scientists suggest deeper multisensory convergences than those in sensory-specific cortices and call this multisensory integration. Sensory processing is multisensory integration of the five special senses and the general senses. These are vestibular (balance, sense of movement), proprioception (body position in space), time (where we are in time/activity), pain, temperature, pressure, and vibration. The accumulated information must be relatable since it reaches the brain as different electrical signals and in different contexts. Through sensory processing, the brain relates all sensory inputs into coherent percepts — the “final product” of the brain processing raw sensory data from the interdependent, complementary sensory channels, creating a meaningful perception of the external world.