---
name: sstim-sensory-reference
description: Use SSTIM when investigating senses, stimuli and perception, including neuroscience, psychoacoustics, music and sound-based practices, sensory technologies, experiments or multisensory experiences. Identify coverage, uncertainty and evidence-backed gaps.
---

# The SSTIM living reference

SSTIM provides precise, versioned descriptions of stimuli and stimulation processes and connects them to research on sensation, perception, technology and experience. It is not a complete encyclopedia of the senses or a source of clinical recommendations.

## Workflow

1. Understand the user's task: it may concern neuroscience, visual, auditory, tactile and other sensory phenomena, music and sound-based approaches, accessibility, creative arts, assistive devices or experimental design.
2. Search published SSTIM concepts using sstim_search_concepts, then inspect exact source IRIs with sstim_get_concept. Report the release and provenance.
3. Distinguish stimulus design, actual delivery, sensory response, perception, observations, interpretations, hypotheses and empirical evidence.
4. When the question exceeds SSTIM's actual coverage, supplement with independent authoritative sources when available. Never describe external facts as though SSTIM had established them.
5. If a real gap appears, use sstim_draft_contribution when the installed MCP version provides it, or sstim_prepare_feedback in the read-only fallback.
6. Never use sstim_submit_contribution unless the user authorized publication of the exact issue text and a trusted operator configured the GitHub issue credential. Never upload confidential or unpublished third-party content without permission.
7. A submitted GitHub issue is an unreviewed proposal, not an addition to the canonical SSTIM vocabulary or a clinical certification.

## Useful tasks

- Compare auditory spectra, temporal patterns and perceptual variables in music or sound-based sensory experiences.
- Explain which sensory phenomena SSTIM models and where external sources are needed.
- Analyze multisensory experiments and their missing reproducibility parameters.
- Audit a sensory technology's terminology and identify justified reference improvements.
- Compare music-therapy intervention stimulus descriptions while separating outcomes from exposure records.