Sensation and Perception

Have you ever learned the difference between sensation and perception? Sometimes this may be something we never really consciously think about. Sensation happens before perceptions can be made. Sensations are the data with which we make a perception. 

These are the five senses: 

These are the areas of the brain that process the sensory information:

It was amazing to watch the TED talk with Apollo Robbins and his mind blowing brain perception games. He explains how we only have so much attention space available for our brain to use. If he distracts us, this leaves us open to being tricked in another area. He describes it as if we have a guard that sits at the front of the brain. He calls his Frank. If he gets Frank to think about a certain memory then Frank is distracted and can't see him as he takes the watch of your wrist. I watched it a couple times with my son and we both tried to see what we knew was coming but still could not get our brains to see what we knew was happening!!

Something I had never heard of before is Synesthesia. In this video, we learn how senes can come together and function jointly. In a definition taken from the video, Anesthesia means "no feeling" and synesthesia means "joint feeling". This phenomenon affect 4% of the population. It is where someone can see the letter "L" and thats red for them. It happens unconsciously, they don't even know they are doing it. It might be that they hear something and it puts a certain taste in their mouth. It is a hereditary gene and one way that we can really see how different people can be looking at the same thing and their perceptions can be so different. 

It was beautiful to watch the story of Kelly, who gets a cochlear implant for the first time.After an infection when she was 2 left her deaf, this show follows her and her journey to be able to hear again. These implants are drilled into the cochlear part of the ear where sensors are placed. A microphone is Placed on the outside of the skull which transmits the sounds to the implant so she can hear. The sound is not as clear as a hearing person but for someone who can't hear at all it is an incredible difference to their world.

"Perception is reality, Nicolle"

That is something a good friend used to tell me. It was while I was at a faith based transition home for nine months during my recovery from alcohol. I didn't understand it at first but in time I realized that I had been living my life off the wrong perceptions which became my reality which led me to use substances to deal with my false perceptions. For example, thinking " non one can love me after what I've done" that is a false perception but because for me it was true, it became my reality and led me to live hopeless and thinking I could never get better. Once I changed my perception, along with fully surrendering my life to Christ, I was able to change my reality and get to a place of living sober, joyous and loved. Perceptions are not only of our physical world but our emotional one to. It is not just about concrete things we can see but also the abstract thoughts and feelings we have. Now that I have learned this valuable tool of how people are so different in the way we perceive things, it has helped me in all my relationships, especially as a mother. I have learned to stop, and try to see things from others perspectives and doing so has made me a more well rounded, empathetic person. Being able to let go of certain"tones" in someones voice or overlook body language and understand that they may have meant to communicate that or I may have read it wrong, has kept me from holding on to perceptions that may lead to resentments or anger. This is something that is getting harder to do with our ever changing cyber society where we are communicating without all of senes being engaged. Texting, emails, facebook, sometimes the words written in these places can be perceived incorrectly because of the lack of engaging with others on a personal basis. It leave the a lot to be perceived by the reader.

These lessons are just the beginning of what our brain is capable of when it comes to its senses and perceptions. How an athlete reacts to a ball, what we see when we walk in a room, how we translate what we hear, all these things are as unique to a person as their fingerprint. Not everything we need to know about it is known and much is yet to be learned but advances are happening all the time. It still brings me to a place of awe and wonder before my Creator for the His touch upon our lives. How much we think we know about how He has made us probably doesn't compare to the mysteries that still lie before us.

"You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar." Psalm 139:2 NIV

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.Psalm 139:13 NIV