04. Mechanism of sensation

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All our sensations are perceived by us as a difference between one and another. Consciousness determines the difference of one type of sensations from the other – blue from red, sweet from sour, visual sensations from taste or tactile sensations. If this difference did not exist everything would coalesce into a single monotonous background. In this event consciousness would not exist functionally. Even for a small, simplest feeling the minimum of a dual difference – when there is a feeling, and when there is no feeling – is required.

The difference is pre-set by way of delivery of signals from the changing world, where each receptor reacts only on its well-defined sensation and sends the signal to its part of the brain. The variations of combinations of these stimuli give different tints of sensations. A sensation emerges in the brain, in its functional part of the “analyzer” of this sense organ. Before it the stimulus in the receptor and the nerve is only an electric signal and has a transporting function.

Vision perceives the visible world view as a difference between colors and brightness. Due to this we can see the outline and the colour of things which are later analyzed by the intelligence and reproduce in our consciousness conceptual blocks and emotionally coloured images. A strong or a weak impact do not give any difference and are not perceived by us as sensations. We sense a weak impact on the eye receptors which is lower than the threshold of perception of the difference between the receptors as darkness. A strong impact on the whole eye in a bright light also causes the maximum impact on each receptor, which also eliminates the difference between them and causes a blinding effect. The impact of all colors at a time leads to the white noise caused by the impossibility of distinction and converging to the white colour.

Hearing works in a similar way: the brain perceives the sound as a difference between the signals of the receptors. The coming signal is compared as to its intensity, tonality and direction with the signal which has just come contained in the short-term memory. After that the brain gives a conceptual and emotional colouring to the blocks of auditory sensations. A continuous sound causes habituation, a gradual change is imperceptible, a weak or a very strong impact cause deafness, a contemporaneous inflow of all tones and intensities leads to the white noise caused by the impossibility of distinction between one affected receptor and another.

Other organs of senses – taste, odour, tactile sensations – have a similar algorithm of operation.

We know thinking as handling of unique sensations of letters, words, notions forming the language in which we think. Unlike receptor feelings these sensations are reproduced from the memory. Our memory stores not only words and meaning, but sensations too. Each tint has its meaning. Without any difference between the tints it would be impossible to think. Thinking is a process of operation of intelligence, but the process of thinking is almost beyond our control and it is difficult for us to stop it, although we can perceive other feelings without thoughts. Often thinking does not bear any logical or other functions of intelligence, but goes in a fragmentary, illogical background mixed with emotions, and does not follow any goal. In the event of an attempt to think all words and notions at a time we will receive that same white noise. It will result in the absence of distinction, like in the event of stopping thinking.

Emotions work based on the same principle of distinction, as all feelings and sensations. Emotions may be divided into several blocks in each of which the principle of comparative operation works. For example, a human being may be hungry and tired. But being simultaneously hungry and full, or tired and fresh is impossible. Emotions also start more complex processes calling from the memory complete blocks of interconnected feelings. All impulsions, psychological and physiological motivation sensations - interest, appetence, fear, hunger, pain etc. – can be expressed at the drop of the energy state of brain parts and the urge for their balancing with the help of certain actions. The stronger the feeling, the bigger the energy jump and the urge of the system for a balance. These drops inside the brain determine our whole conscious life, all other impulsions and urges, and are based on three main biological motives – to eat, to reproduce and to sustain own life and the life of near species. They are united in their urge for dominance as a guarantee of implementation of these tasks. Without these motivations the human life would be impossible – a human being would simply stay motionless until he died of hunger. In the event of elimination of impulsion motives the satisfaction comes which technically looks like the termination of energy distortion between parts of the neural network. There are many feelings and impulsions, but the principle of satisfaction is the same for everyone.

We may say the feeling is a comparative characteristic of signals from different receptors. All sensations - exteroceptive, interoceptive, proprioceptive – are built on a contrast. A constant impact causes habitation, a smooth and gradual impact might not come to perception. A weak but contrast impact draws attention first of all. The sensation of everything at a time does not cause distinction in consciousness and results in the white noise.

Let us return to the thesis that in the natural world there are no such notions as sweet, blue, terrible, beautiful and so on. These are our subjective perceptions of stimuli which react on one or another chemical or physical impact, or psychological stereotypes, and the signal from any receptor to the analyzer exists in form of electricity. If we close the nerve from tongue receptors onto the analyzer of vision we will perceive taste as optical sensations. This is why we do not need to try to understand the essence of one or another feeling. The characteristics which we attribute to the world around us belong not to it, but to our brain. This is our subjective reaction. This is why we are able to imagine them, see in our dreams, hallucinations and in the event of psychiatric disorders. It is just enough to duplicate the relations based on the difference and emerging in the structures of the brain at the time of the signal.