Behind the Scenes of The Brain Show

by Zeev Nitsan

  And in association to that a bitter-funny saying can be cited: “the speed of sound waves is sometimes a strange thing, there are things that my parents told me when I was a kid and I hear them only now”…

  Attentional Blink

  The system that processes perception impressions needs minimal freshening time between one perception stimulation to the next. The time gap that is created from the end point of processing a certain sensory stimulation to the point when the sensory organ is ready for perceiving and processing a new stimulation is called “attentional blink,” and it lasts for several thousandths of a second with respect to visual perception stimulations.[15]

  The period of “attentional blink” restarts the lifetime window of the present-missing sensory stimulation (a stimulation that is no longer trapped in the net of our senses but whose impressions have not yet vanished from the sensory organ). Visual dragged images (like the image that is dragged on the retina after looking at a glaring object, which is a sort of sensory hangover) share similarities with earworms, which are melodies or songs that play in our ears even when, in practice, the audio stimulation no longer exists.

  At the basis of these phenomena is the fact that our senses rely on recalibration, freshening time, which prevents them from reflecting world phenomena exactly in real time.

  Perception and Sensory Illusions

  In Buddhism is interwoven the idea that our senses bind our consciousness and only after our death will we be freed from the tyranny of our senses and experience reality as it is.

  Some wander to the border zones of philosophy provinces and wonder whether the physical phenomenon at the basis of the sensory stimulation exists when there is no perception to perceive the stimulation. In philosophical wording, the question that can be asked is, do falling trees make a sound even when there are no ears around to listen to the sound?

  The phenomena of sensory and perception illusions are part of our daily routine and an inexhaustible source of psychologists’ tricks. Here are some of the exotic illusions:

  Simultanagnosia

  Simultanagnosia is a phenomenon in which there is a difficulty in perceiving, or a complete lack of ability to perceive, all of the impressions as a whole; they are perceived as isolated impressions out of context. This phenomenon might affect various inputs in the senses. The sound of a car horn or a cat’s howling while we are walking down the street might be perceived as an isolated sound out of the context of “environmental sounds that are frequently heard on the street.”

  Visual simultanagnosia is common among people who use drugs that cause hallucinations. The observed objects are perceived as isolated entities that lack mutual relationships.

  It is possible that a simultanagnosia-like mechanism is part of the world-experiencing mechanism of people who suffer from autism, and it makes it hard for them to tell the wood for the trees. On the other hand, it intensifies their ability to distinguish between isolated trees.

  Synesthesia

  Synesthesia is a situation in which stimulation in one sensory channel is translated into stimulation in another sensory channel, or is merged into a multiple-sensory experience.

  Synesthesia is built into our sensory perception. It might also be defined as a phenomenon in which the outline that encircles the various senses becomes blurred. An input in a certain sense is perceived by the brain to be an input in a different sense. A certain sight is accompanied by a certain sound and a certain texture is accompanied by a certain smell, etc.

  When we put something edible in our mouth, such as cherry ice cream, the sense of taste does not derive solely from the taste buds on our tongue but from a combination of the information originating from the taste buds and the texture and smell of the food. “Aroma” is the term used to define the essential contribution of the sense of smell to the sense of taste. Thus, the sense of taste inherently involves synesthesia.

  The more esoteric synesthesia is the one that creates unconventional interfaces between senses, such as a synesthesia of sound and taste. Recently, some findings have shown that sounds might calibrate the sense of smell. This is a synesthetic pattern called SMOUND.

  There are synesthesia of color-sound, color-smell, and other possible combinations. People who experience such synesthesia can talk about the taste of the wind or the color of a sound.

  Babies’ consciousness is a “beginner’s consciousness.” Some claim that a baby’s perception is a synesthetic chaos, since babies’ senses have yet to cross the threshold of differentiation that distinguishes between the various senses. Some relate it to overconnectivity between processing areas of various sensory inputs, which characterizes the brain of a baby and is retained, to some extent, in the brains of adults who are endowed with synesthesia. Studies that can support this hypothesis show that the frequency of synesthesia is high in childhood and low in adulthood.

  A quoted estimate regarding incidence of synesthesia in adults is one per two thousand. There is an inherent difficulty in assessing this ability, however, since it relies on self-reporting, and the estimated incidence is controversial.

  The process of thinking might be considered a synesthetic creation in which ideas originating in one brain are merged with ideas originating in other brains, creating conceptual hybrids.

  The Hallucinations Generator

  The brain is a “stimulation junkie,” since it requires constant stimulation. In the absence of stimulations, it generates activity that simulates sensory stimulation, such as audio hallucinations that are common among the deaf at an advanced stage of their life, or visual hallucinations that are common among the blind at an advanced stage of their life.

  A similar phenomenon was observed in situations of lasting external sensory deprivation. In an experiment in which the subject stays within an isolated container, not exposed to any external stimulation, it was found that the brain makes up consciousness impressions, which it pretends are real sensory impressions.

  A syndrome called “Alice in Wonderland” is a type of perceptual distortion. People who suffer from it experience delusional distortions in the visual input, for example, with respect to perceiving the size or shape of objects or body parts. The distortions are mostly related to micropsia (“Lilliput” vision—objects are perceived as smaller than their real size) or macropsia (“Gulliver” vision—objects are perceived as bigger than their real size).

  The syndrome results from a distortion in the function of neurons located at the temporal lobes, where an electric disorder takes place that results in visual distortion. This syndrome demonstrates how much sensory impressions perception relies on the processing processes of the perception-organizing system in the brain.

  Color and Consciousness

  Colors can trigger a certain behavior pattern based on innate conditioning. For example, the expertise of the golden silk spider is setting honey traps that attract insects to their death with sweet, vain promises. The spider weaves its webs in yellow, which is the common shade of flowers that produce honeydew. The yellow shade magnetizes insects in a pattern of inherent behavioral conditioning like the irresistible song of the sirens.

  In the world of human beings, color also has explicit and implicit effect on our behavior. For instance, pink is known to induce universal relaxation and tranquility. This is why the walls of prison cells are often painted pink. “Prison-cell pink” reduces the level of anxiety and aggressiveness among those who find themselves there.

  Another example is taken from a consumer survey that showed that when a yellow shade was added to the words printed on a “7-Up” soda can, subjects reported a marked taste of lemon, and when green shade was added, subjects reported a marked taste of lime. The color colored the taste as well.

  The Journey of Marco Polo in the Land of Smell

  The Distance Between the Smell of an Orange and the Smell of the Sea

  The attempt to quantify with a qualitative-subjective dominant aspect comes with great difficulty. It is true for all
sensory inputs. The study of the sense of smell is especially affected by this.

  In the vision domain, the “color code” has been cracked, meaning the correlation between the wavelength of a beam of light and the accompanying sense of color is known. It is also true for the “code of sound”—we know the frequency and intensity of the sound waves that are typical of certain musical instruments. But it is much more difficult to draw a reference axis on which the location of the smell molecule will enable the prediction of the smelling experience.

  With respect to visual input, we can claim that the “difference” in the length of the waves between purple and orange, which is about 35 nanometers, is almost half of the “difference” between green and orange, which is approximately 65 nanometers. As for audio input, we might say that the difference between Re and Mi is always the same as the difference between Re and Do, but what is the distance between the smell of an orange and the smell of the sea?

  Smell Me a Sheep

  A mental image of smell is rather difficult to convey, perhaps because of the relatively small cortex area devoted to the processing of smell in the human brain.

  It seems that, even in those senses to which a “high subjectivity coefficient” is ascribed, however, there are more universal elements than was believed in the past. The assumption that the sense of smell is a sort of a bench player in comparison to other senses has become less popular. Despite the inherent difficulties in the research of smell, several fascinating studies have been conducted in this field.

  Smell researchers assume there are about one thousand different types of smell receptors, some of which are not even expressed in practice. Each receptor can respond to several types of smell molecules, which are volatile molecules that carry a specific smell. On the other hand, each smell molecule can activate several types of receptors. The estimated assessment of the human smelling spectrum is approximately ten thousand smells. Thus, the boundaries of the perceptual universe of smell are rather extensive, considering the world of colors we perceive through the sense of sight is based on the receptors of the three primary colors: red, blue and green, which make up all colors and shades of our visual world.

  The correlation between the chemical and physical qualities of the smell molecule and the sense of pleasure or displeasure it creates in the person who smells it used to be mostly unknown.

  Researchers have created a map that places smell substances in a multidimensional space based on a number of features, such as the number of carbon atoms, weight, and level of solubility in water. This map enables us to assess the distance between the locations of two separate smell substances on the map in a measurable manner. It turns out that smell substances people perceive as similar are also located close to one another on the smell map. It seems that the differences between the smells of various substances are based on universal regularity, which depends more on the chemical and physical traits of the smell substances and less on personal, subjective preferences.[16] Now, it is much easier to understand the laws of the state of smell that were considered a mystery not so long ago.

  Polecat or Lilac?

  It was found that the smelling experience is based, inter alia, on “universal scents.” The variation of the chemical and physical traits of the smell molecules is correlated with the sense of pleasure or displeasure caused by the smell, as perceived by people of various ethnic backgrounds. In other words, the level of pleasure or displeasure invoked by a smell is a universal trait shared by people of different ethnic backgrounds. The so-called subjective dimension of the sense of smell relies, to a great extent, on the objective dimension of the physical and chemical traits of the smell molecule. A possible (teleological) explanation for that derives from the fact that the sense of smell is designed to help us map the chemical aspects of the world of phenomena, so these aspects determine the subjective sense that rely on a universal codex of smells. This is how the road was paved for the ability to predict a sense of pleasure or displeasure felt by people prior to the actual smelling. Thus, for example, the smell of men’s sweat was proven to induce a sense of relaxation among women (they love them making an effort).

  The sense of pleasure or displeasure originating in a smell is also determined, to a great extent, by the context in which it is perceived. The smell of Gorgonzola cheese might be considered appetizing among fans of this cheese, when it is attached to the cheese itself, but even those fans will not wear Gorgonzola perfume under normal social circumstances.

  Chapter 3: Attention, Consciousness, and Awareness at the Center and Margins of the Attention Beam

  The Awareness Spectrum

  The brain was developed as a means of creating adjustable behavior patterns of an organism to the world. In order to fulfill this task, the brain controls the constant division of attention between the inner world, which is defined by whatever exists within the boundaries of our skin, and the outer world phenomena outside our body. The proportion of attention divided between these two worlds changes continuously.

  Our awareness changes along a spectrum. There are things we are fully aware of, and they are located at the center of our attention beam. On the other hand, there are things we are only remotely aware of, and they are located at the “margins of our attention beam.”

  The periphery of our attention cycle represents a background of consciousness. In the periphery of our attention cycle, there is the twilight zone of consciousness, a zone characterized by partial shadowing, in which the perception impressions are dimmed but are not fully concealed from the eye of consciousness.

  The ability to focus on a narrow, selected aspect of sensory input derives from our ability to focus our attention beam on it.

  We tend to focus our attention on “essential” components of an experience and the elements of it, which, when not perceived, might not cross the threshold of awareness or might, possibly, remain at the margins of consciousness.

  An easy-to-apply experiment demonstrating the act of focusing attention is the attempt to remember the shape of digits on your watch, assuming it is not a digital watch, without “refreshing your memory” by checking the watch. Many people consider it a tough task, despite having looked at their watch numerous times before. The reason for this is that, when we look at our watch, the focus of our attention is given to the pattern that shows the time. We move through the information related to the configurational aspect of the digits without noticing them, aiming at the information related to the pattern of time. The impressions related to the configuration of the digits are mostly dull, and our attempt to invoke this information and revive it fails most of the times we are asked to do so.

  An experiment that resulted in similar findings showed that the configurational features of a one-cent coin (President Lincoln’s profile, the word “Liberty,” etc.), which is a very common coin and is used on a day-to-day basis by Americans, were remembered by only one of the ten participants—and this person happened to be a coin collector.

  Focusing Attention According to the Gambit Approach

  “Gambit” is a term taken from the world of chess and refers to a deliberate sacrifice of a chessman in order to gain an advantage in the game. Our focus of attention also “sacrifices” aspects of reality and ignores them while focusing on chosen aspects of reality in a selective pattern in order to maximize the benefit of absorbing information.

  Voluntary regulation grants us the partial ability to determine the diameter of our attention beam and its intensity so that it fits the relevant task.

  Our attention system enables us to tune into the stimulations of the external world and our inner world. The stimulations from our inner world alongside stimulations from the different organs of our body include input of the world of phenomena within the brain, and it is also done through selective filtering.

  Different brain structures are in charge of selective attention to inner brain input and of filtering various types of “inner white noise.” Failure in the process of filtering and
regulation of signals across various brain areas is typical of Parkinson’s disease. Some of the involuntary movements that appear in some patients who suffer from the disease originate in the “white noise.” This is the output of brain areas that, under normal circumstances, is deleted and censored from the brain’s action plan. Among people who suffer from Parkinson’s, this output is not deleted and reaches, in its raw shape, the movement centers in the frontal lobe.

  The Smell of Fear

  Perception impressions that are not exposed to the sun of awareness might unconsciously affect our thoughts and actions. Our reality perception is sometimes affected by subconscious sensory impressions. An example is an experiment we might call “the smell of fear.”

  The participants in the experiment were women (who, compared to men, have higher sensitivity to most types of smell molecules). Some of the women were asked to smell a pad that had been soaked in the perspiration of men who had watched a horror film. During the experiment, the women watched photos of human faces with a variety of expressions. The women who smelled the pad interpreted the facial expressions as more threatening and scary than the women who had not been exposed to the “smell bias.” A plausible conclusion (which is only an assumption) might be that the sense of fear is accompanied by a typical smell component that is discharged in perspiration and has not been identified yet. This component is sensed by our brain and leads to a subconscious interpretive bias reflected in the tendency to interpret a certain facial expression as more threatening.