Perception vs Memory: How Our Brain Differentiates What We See from What We Remember
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Our brain differentiates between what we're currently seeing (perception) and what we remember (memory) through the activity of neurons in the visual cortex.
When we perceive something, the "receptive fields" (areas tracking a certain space in our field of vision) of neurons start small and grow larger in higher levels of visual processing. This growth allows more detail and complexity to be added to the perceived image.
However, when we recall a memory, these receptive fields at all levels of visual processing remain larger and less precise, reflecting only the highest-level representation of the originally perceived image.
This means our brain stores and recalls memories in a "blurrier" form than the original perception. This helps us distinguish between the two and may prevent storing overly detailed information.
Let's consider a real-life scenario for better understanding. Suppose you visit a new city and see a remarkable landmark for the first time. The image of the landmark you're currently observing involves the perception process – your neurons are processing the detailed and complex image of the landmark. Now, after a few months, if you try to recall that landmark, the image will be a little blurrier compared to the original perception. That's because the memory recall doesn't provide the same level of detail as the actual perception. It's like comparing a high-resolution photo (perception) to a lower resolution one (memory).
In our daily lives, we use both these processes: direct perception and information from memory. For example, when we see a familiar object, we use our memory of what it looks like to recognize it, but we also perceive new information about the object (such as its position or color) in real-time.
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