Perception

Definition

A cortical process that results in a subjective sensory experience that is potentially meaningful or recognizable.

Current Knowledge

Although commonly used in a multimodal context (“My perceptionof the children was unfavorable”), in a strict physiological sense, basic percepts involve a single sensory modality and must be distinguished from sensations. Sensations are elementary sensory inputs that are picked up by peripheral receptor cells and registered in the brain. While capable of being recognized as events, in and of itself an elementary sensation is thought to be essentially indistinguishable from similar events in the same modality. In contrast, a perception is a higher-order process that takes place exclusively within the brain and involves the integration of elementary sensory input into an orderly form or “whole” capable of differentiation. Thus, a sensation requires some type of sensory input or stimulus (usually external), whereas it is possible to mentally...