INTRODUCTION
LPerception is a mental activity by which a person is able to grasp the meaning of the stimuli that reach them through the senses (taste, hearing, smell, sight and taste)These stimuli can be external and internalIt is the activity that best enables the individual to adapt to their environment.
Perception is a complex mental activity, since its normal functioning involves practically all psychic functions, such as memory, attention, affectivity, sensations, and intelligence. Hence, although there is a great deal of agreement among people regarding the sensation they produce with objects and reality, the same cannot be said of the assessment that each person makes when the sensation is transformed into perception, where other cognitive functions participate.
Fernando Sarráis((Fernando Sarráis (2016). Psychopathology. Navarra. EUNSA Publishing House)) refers to a series of proverbs that explain quite well the individual differences regarding perceptual activity: “"There is no one more blind than he who will not see"; "you only find out what interests you"; "when you are sad, everything looks black", etc.
When we assess the characteristics of perception, it is necessary to discern whether we are dealing with a perception or an image or representation. Jasper He differentiated between perception and representation (image). perception It is corporeal, occurs in outer space, and possesses a specific design that encompasses all details; it has sensory freshness, is constant, and is independent of will. However, the representationn is imaginary, it occurs in interior space and its design is indeterminate, since it usually lacks details, it decomposes and must be created again each time we evoke it and, finally, it is independent of the will.
Neurophysiological bases of perception
Although we define perception as a mental activity, it is about some neuroanatomical, neurophysiological and neurochemical bases on which it is based. It is generally said that the process carried out through the sensory inputs that produce the stimuli would be la feeling, while the processing of sensation would be la perception Properly speaking. That is, perception modulates basic sensory information. Ultimately, sensory information is first analyzed and then integrated into each individual's general cognitive system, which involves attention, memory, and emotions.
Below, we reproduce a table, slightly modified, of Díez-Alegría and Sánchez Quintero((C. Díez-Alegría Gálvez and S. Sánchez Quintero. Perception. In: I.Eguiluz and R.Segarra. Introduction to Psychopathology. An updated view. 2013. Barcelona. Edit-Med. Panamericana (2nd Ed))) which summarizes quite well the different senses and their receptors and, below, the contents that will be presented in each post
Figure 1. Senses and receptors
 |
 |
 |
 |
Contents of the next two posts about perception:
Next post: Psychopathology of perception. (II/III). Perceptual distortions.
