"Research by Anil Seth suggests that the brain constantly predicts what we are going to see next, and as long as those predictions match incoming sensory information, our sense is that we are seeing the world the way it really is."
"Neuroscience tells us a different story, that everything we perceive to be 'out there' is actually a fictional construction of the brain, a way of interpreting the world that helps us to deal with the environment but not literally reflecting external reality."
"The biologist Jakob von Uexküll used the term Umwelt to refer to an animal's perceptual world, pointing out that the brains of different species are tuned in to only the aspects of the environment that are important for survival and reproduction."
"Even though our perceptions are fictional constructions, they do need to correspond to reality to some degree. If we perceive a tree as open space, we will walk into it."
Perceptions often seem accurate, but they are only partial reflections of reality. Research indicates that the brain predicts sensory information, creating a sense of seeing the world as it is. However, neuroscience reveals that perceptions are fictional constructions, shaped by survival needs. Different species perceive only aspects of the environment crucial for their existence. While perceptions must align with reality to some extent, they do not provide a complete representation of the external world, illustrating that the map is not the territory.
Read at Psychology Today
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