FIGURE 3.

General overview of sensory processing. Sensory processing helps organize incoming sensory information from the internal world (i.e., physical sensations that lead to affective feeling states) and the external world (i.e., environmental surroundings) to guide goal-oriented action in response to salient stimuli. Here, there is a phenomenological experience of raw sensory information that initially enters the brainstem and is then relayed to the cerebral cortex for advanced higher-order processing of this sensory information.