sensory threshold
Perception's starting point
Sensory threshold is the minimum intensity of a stimulus required to produce a sensation.
Below this point, a sound is too faint to hear, a touch too light to feel, a taste too dilute to detect.
The threshold varies by sense, individual, and conditions—fatigue, attention, and background noise all shift where perception begins.
Psychologists distinguish the absolute threshold (any detection at all) from the difference threshold (noticing a change between stimuli).
- barely audibleAlmost too quiet
- audiometryEvaluation of hearing ability
- pain receptorsNeurons sensing tissue damage
- psychophysicsScience linking stimuli to perception
- habituationDiminished reaction over time
selective attention · detection · barely · action potential · receptor · nerve endings · intensity · peripheral nervous system · central nervous system · touch · whisper · ringing ears · noise · white noise · minimum · pain · nerve · signal
- sensessight, smell, taste, hearing, touch
- sensitivitysensitivity, sensitive, hypersensitivity, oversensitivity, hypersensitive
- Sensationsensation, senses, feeling, touch, sight
- thresholdslimit, brink, edge, boundary, cusp
- sensory sensitivityhypersensitivity, hyposensitivity, overstimulation, touch sensitivity, light sensitivity
- touchtouch, feel, touching, caress, feeling