sensory deprivation

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noun Psychiatry.

the experimental or natural reduction of environmental stimuli, as by physical isolation or loss of eyesight, often leading to cognitive, perceptual, or behavioral changes, as disorientation, delusions, or panic.

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Words nearby sensory deprivation

sensorium, sensor network, sensory, sensory aphasia, sensory cortex, sensory deprivation, sensory epilepsy, sensory ganglion, sensory image, sensory integration, sensory integration dysfunction

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use sensory deprivation in a sentence

Nothing captures the exuberance and sensory experience of Havana quite like this.
Book Bag: Great Books About Cuba|Julia Cooke|December 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Zubaydah and two other detainees were subsequently waterboarded, and subjected to other methods including sleep deprivation.
CIA Interrogation Chief: ‘Rectal Feeding,’ Broken Limbs Are News to Me|Kimberly Dozier|December 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Detainees there were subject to sleep deprivation, shackled to bars with their hands above their heads.
Inside the CIA’s Sadistic Dungeon|Tim Mak|December 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
He was slapped, grabbed in the face, placed in stress positions, placed in standing sleep deprivation, and doused with water.
Inside the CIA’s Sadistic Dungeon|Tim Mak|December 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Neurons begin to die within four to six minutes of oxygen deprivation.
What It’s Like to Wake Up Dead|Dr. Anand Veeravagu, MD, Tej Azad|November 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It is astonishing how deeply I felt this deprivation, and how much more horrible my solitude now appeared.
My Ten Years' Imprisonment|Silvio Pellico
On the tibia of the first pair of legs are two long special sensory hairs set in little pits.
Journal of Entomology and Zoology, March 1917|Various
They could, besides, be judged from the standpoint of deprivation, comparing them to each other as if they contained some form.
Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 3|Plotinos (Plotinus)
Passion moves the poet to intensity, which is attained by selection of those sensory images which are significant.
Rhetoric and Poetry in the Renaissance|Donald Lemen Clark
By this one deprivation his contact with man had ruined him for the life of nature.
The Watchers of the Trails|Charles G. D. Roberts

British Dictionary definitions for sensory deprivation

sensory deprivation

noun

psychol an experimental situation in which all stimulation is cut off from the sensory receptors

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Medical definitions for sensory deprivation

sensory deprivation

The reduction or absence of usual external stimuli or perceptual opportunities, commonly resulting in psychological distress and sometimes in unpleasant hallucinations.

Cultural definitions for sensory deprivation

sensory deprivation

A natural or experimentally arranged situation in which stimulation of a subject's senses is greatly reduced. Experiments have included floating subjects in soundproof water chambers. Though short periods of sensory deprivation can be relaxing, extended deprivation can result in extreme anxiety, hallucinations, bizarre thoughts, depression, and antisocial behavior. Sensory deprivation experiments have demonstrated that humans need constant sensory contact with their environment in order to function.