stimulus

In physiology, a detectable change in the internal or external surroundings

Also known as Physical Stimulation

Instance of: physical quantity
Subclass of: change

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

In physiology, a stimulus is a change within an organism's internal or external environment. This change, when detected by an organism or organ using sensitivity, can lead to a physiological reaction. Sensory receptors can receive stimuli from outside the body, as in touch receptors in skin or light receptors in the eye, as well as from inside the body, as in chemoreceptors and mechanoreceptors. When detected by a sensory receptor, a stimulus can elicit a reflex via stimulus transduction. An internal stimulus is often the first component of a homeostatic control system. External stimuli are capable of producing systemic responses throughout a body, as in the fight-or-flight response. For a stimulus to be detected with high probability, its level of strength must exceed the absolute threshold; if a signal does reach threshold, the information is transmitted to the central nervous system (CNS), where it is integrated and a decision on how to react is made. Although stimuli commonly cause the body to respond, it is the CNS that finally determines whether a signal causes a reaction or not.

Overview

All data

23 statements · 26% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Said to be the same as: stimulus
Different from: Stimulus criterion used: descriptive page and disambiguation page have to be in different items
stimulus
stimulus

On other databases

17 identifiers linking stimulus across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

26%

externally sourced

Source last edited August 13, 2026. AIDb refreshes this page daily.

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AIDb. (2026). stimulus (Q859031). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/stimulus-Q859031