The Biology of Perception

In 1770s, the island of Pingelap was hit by a typhoon that nearly wiped out the entire population. Only about 20 people survived, one of whom was the colour-blind king. He went on to have many children, passing them his colour blindness gene. They in turn passed it down the generations. Nowadays, 10% of the population of this atoll is colour-blind, which also causes them to be very sensitive to bright light. However, their night-time vision is excellent as they are able to distinguish shapes in the dark much better than a colour-seeing person is.

Colour vision is triggered by cells in our eyes called cones, with each type of cone able to distinguish up to 100 colours. Most people have three types, so when the cells send signals to the brain, it combines them into the sensation of colour. The total combinations of colours is 1,000,000. Meanwhile, those who are colour-blind (like the Pingelap Islanders) have only two cones, so they can only see 10,000.

The colour-blind Islanders literally do not see the world in the same way most of us do. To confuse you even more, there is one woman with four cones that function together to allow her to, potentially, see up to 100,000,000 colour combinations… Imagine you all had to go shopping for curtains together!

It is not simply our senses that affects our perception. When I was heavily pregnant, it was very tiring and difficult to walk anywhere. One day, I suddenly realised how my disabled mother-in-law must be assessing every footpath she is walking on to make sure she can take the next step safely, which is why she is so much slower than us 'able-bodied' young adults.

So obviously, the functionality of our senses, as well as the condition of any of our limbs and organs affect our perception. What else?

Our Biochemistry

Our bodies are constantly at work. Millions of biological, chemical and electrical processes are happening every second, automatically, without us being aware at all.

Imagine you had to consciously monitor how much blood your heart is pumping, or whether there is enough oxygen entering the blood stream from your lungs… There won't be time left for anything else.

Any malfunction that occurs in these processes influences our functioning, sometimes in a minor way, and sometimes in a life threatening way. A stroke or heart attack can change someone's perception of reality hugely, affecting senses, operation of limbs, memory and cognitive behaviour – creating a perception gap for the same person before and after the event.

Hormonal influences

Did you know that men suffer from periods? Research found that men go through similar hormonal changes every certain amount of days, with the usual emotional rollercoaster minus the obvious physical phenomena. Psychotherapist Jed Diamond refers to it as "Irritable Male Syndrome" (and here I was, thinking that this was the normal state of affairs!).

Similarly, if your body starts producing excess amounts of Cortisol (stress hormone) or Endorphins (pain inhibiting, happiness hormones), you may find yourself shifting from stress and anxiety to a euphoric high – two completely different states of mind that make us interpret reality differently!

Even lack of sleep can have huge impact. Even just one extra hour of sleep can help us function better during the day. And when we are less tired, we are less irritable (ask any parent!).

By the way, a little tip: if you are trying to lose weight for whatever reason, but are not sleeping well at night – make it your priority to sort the sleep problem out first. No sleep -> no Melatonin hormone -> slower, if not none existent, weight loss.

So as you probably understand by now, there are many things within our biology that affect us in any given time, and we are not even aware of most of them. Even when we feel healthy, we may find ourselves inexplicably stressed, angry, struggling to diet or dying for a smoke – when in fact all we may have needed was to take a deep breath, drink or eat as the body was missing some oxygen or energy. Only when we become ill we suddenly become more aware of it…

Take the time to look and listen to your own individual body, ask yourself if anything has changed. That way you can learn about it and develop more experience in reading your own needs better.

I will be exploring experiences on my next blog post, so don't miss it! :)