Perception, Your Personal Matrix
Presenter:
Brain Facts
Time:
4:26
Summary
Perception is subjective. Our perceptions help us understand why two people can look at the same apple and one will call it red while another might say it's a brownish red, depending on the sensitivity of their photoreceptors. Our biology, culture, and past experiences can shape our perception. And even when data is missing, our brains can fill in the gaps based on previous experiences and expectations, altering how we view reality.
Transcript
Perception is our brain's way of understanding the world around us. It does so by taking sensory input using nerve cells called receptors and then interpreting that information to make sense of it. Different receptors take in different sensory information. Mechanoreceptors in the skin respond to Dutch photoreceptors to light and chemoreceptors to taste and smell.
Once these receptors are stimulated, they generate an electrical signal which is relayed to the thalamus, which then sends it to the appropriate area in the brain for interpretation. The parietal lobe of the brain interprets the sensory information acquired by touch, like temperature, pressure, vibration and pain. The occipital lobe processes visual information, light, color and size, and the temporal lobe recognizes and processes sounds to understand the process better. Let's look at an example. Meet my friends, Bob and Lena. I gave both of them an apple and asked them to describe it for me. Bob said the Apple was bright red, and its texture was super rough, with lots of bumps and grooves, whereas Lana said the Apple was a dull brown color, but pretty smooth. This difference in the way Bob and Lana experienced the same Apple is due to perception.