The removal of normal external stimuli, such as sight and sound, from a person’s environment. Prolonged sensory deprivation can produce feelings of unreality, difficulty in thinking, and hallucinations.
A substantial reduction in the volume of SENSORY information impinging on the body – for instance, sitting in a dark, silent room. Prolonged deprivation is potentially harmful as the body needs constant stimulation in order to function normally. The main input organs are the eyes, ears, skin and nose. The absence of sensations disorients a person and results in neurological dysfunction. Some interrogation techniques involve sensory deprivation to ‘soften up’ the individual being questioned.
a major reduction in incoming sensory information. The main input sensory channels are the eyes, ears, skin, and nose. If input from all of these is blocked, there is loss of the sense of reality, distortion of time and imagined space, hallucinations, bizarre thought patterns, and other indications of neurological dysfunction. Even minimal sensory deprivation in early childhood can have a serious effect on the personality.
Lack of sufficient loving attention and of warm, trusting relationships during a child’s early years, so that normal emotional development is inhibited. Emotional deprivation may result if bonding does not occur in the early months of life. Emotionally deprived children may be impulsive, crave attention, be unable to cope with frustration, and may have impaired intellectual development.... emotional deprivation
a nerve that carries information inwards, from an outlying part of the body towards the central nervous system. Different sensory nerves convey information about temperature, pain, touch, taste, etc., to the brain. Compare motor nerve.... sensory nerve
a test for *diabetes insipidus in which fluid and food intake is withheld completely for up to 24 hours, with regular measurement of plasma and urinary *osmolality and body weight. Normally (and in a person with psychogenic *polydipsia) the output of *vasopressin will be increased in order to concentrate the urine as the plasma osmolality rises; correspondingly, the urine osmolality also rises and its volume diminishes. In a patient with diabetes insipidus, however, the urine osmolality will remain low and of high volume while the patient steadily dehydrates. The test must be abandoned if the patient loses 3% of body weight.... water-deprivation test
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