Annex X.18 – SENSORIAL DISTRIBUTIONS

X.18.1 Sensory cell distributions as objects

In chapter 8 we have discussed about the sensory organs, their types and material flux types received by these. We saw that these organs make-up the information’s input units into NIPS and at the moment of their output an ISS flux is released, which depends on the external material flux which is incident on the sensory organ. Therefore, functionally speaking, a sensory input unit is a flux converter (transformer): an external flux with a specific spatial, temporal or frequential distribution and a specific intensity, all of these existing at a specific moment t, will generate an ISS flux with a certain structure, a certain spatial distribution and a certain intensity, all existing at the moment t+Δt, where Δt is the temporal interval required for the flux conversion (interval which is momentarily let aside because it is not relevant for the topic of this annex).

Each sensory organ is made-up from a finite and invariant number of sensory cells which are specialized in receiving a certain type of external material flux, cells which are spatially distributed in certain areas placed either on the body’s RBS or inside it. The distribution of the sensory cells for a specific organ and organism are provided by the genetic code of the biosystem species to which the organism belongs to, and these distributions are invariant throughout its entire life time, and identical for all the normal specimens of that species. Each of these distributions has, objectually speaking, all the properties within the general object model presented in chapter 3:

P1 The set of distributed attributes is related to the set of sensory cells which are part from the structure of that organ, each type of cell receiving a specific qualitative property of the external flux¹08;

Comment X.18.1.1: For example, there are four types of sensory cells in case of the retina - the R, G, B - types of cones and the rods. Their spatial distribution is uneven, in fovea (visual center, origin of the retina’s internal RS) the cones are prevalent and the rods are more numerous at the peripherical area. The rods are reference cells as regards the intensity of the light flux and they are not sensitive at a specific color; at the same time, they have a much faster response than the cones, being suitable for detecting the motion in a peripherical visual field.

P2 The distribution support is the spatial position of the sensory cells within that particular organ, against the internal RS of that organ;

P3 The spatial distribution type is settled by means of the species’ genetic code, each sensory cell being placed in a certain spatial position against the internal spatial RS of the sensory organ and of the organism;

Comment X.18.1.2: The internal spatial reference system of the animal organism is generally made-up from the anterior-posterior axis (axis of the digestive tract), which is crossed by two perpendicular planes and each of them separates two half-spaces: left-right and ventral-dorsal. At the middle of the axis, another perpendicular plane which is placed on the other two separates the anterior-posterior half-spaces. In case of humans, because of their bipedal position, the anterior-posterior axis has become vertical (local direction of the gravity field gradient), the anterior-posterior half-spaces being changed in an up-down half-spaces. This is an artificial RS, useful for defining the anatomic position of the organs or cells by the humans; the real internal spatial (natural) RS, used by the intra-cellular processing systems of the genetic code for establishing the position of each cell is yet unknown.

P4 The amount of the support spatial domain both of the organism and of the sensory organ is also established by means of the genetic code, through the size of each cell type and through their number;

P5 The internal reference system is also established by means of the genetic code, through the existence of either a spatial RS which is specific to the sensory organ against which the position of each sensory cell is being settled (for example, the case of the retina or of the Corti organ), or a global spatial RS of the organism (for the sensory cells placed into the epidermis);

P6 All the above-mentioned components simultaneously exist at the present moment of the IPS inside the organism.

An elementary sensory flux (elementary sensation) is found at the output (axon) of each sensory cell, with an intensity depending on the intensity of the elementary flux incident on the cell. On the way between the sensory cell and the central nervous system (the brain), the spatial relative positions of these nervous endings within the same sensory organ are being preserved, so that the spatial distribution of the cells from the sensory organ determines a spatial distribution which is a conformable representation of the elementary fluxes which have reached to the brain. At the same time, each sensory organ has an associated (reserved) cortical area with an invariant position against the internal RS of the brain. Finally, there will be the same number of cortical spatial distributions as the number of the body’s sensory organs, each with its own spatial domain and with the distribution type of the elementary sensations generated by the distribution of the received external fluxes.

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INDEX

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