History

=**The Philosophy of Perception and Science of Sensation**=

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To understand the history of physiology of perception and sensation, you have to start with how the idea formed. During the Greek times when philosophers questioned everything, a household name was Aristotle. Aristotle observed chick embryos to develop his idea that the heart was the most important in the organ in our bodies, claiming that it was where the body held it’s intelligence, how the body moved, and how humans feel sensation (Findlen, F. & Benc, R. n.d.). This theory was significant in that it gave an actual anatomical component to what humans experience as humans and rooted the Greek idea of a soul to the body (Lorenz, H. 2009). The theory would be expounded by Galen of Pergamon born in 130 A.D. into his famous “Humorism” theory, which based on Hippocrates’s, born in 460 B.C., theory that cerebrospinal fluid called “spirits” are what control the body as they flow from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and in from the sensory organs (Boeree, C. 2002). Galen would take this theory and modify it to add emotion to the different colored spirits, and as a healer had to restore balance which involved letting blood out of the spirit in abundance (Boeree, C. 2002). Now this theory, like Aristotle’s, was the first of it’s kind, that how humans feel and act is related to the body even more significant that it originates from the brain vesicles and spine (Boeree, C. 2002).

media type="youtube" key="rVNVnZ7W3jE" height="315" width="560" In 1561 a significant contribution would be Gabriele Fallopio’s explanation of the cranial nerves, suggesting that all nerves had root in the brain would further the development of a science that doesn’t exist for the next generation of scientists. Anatomical advances would eventually lead to the philosophy that fueled the combination of sensation and perception as a unified physiology subject. In 1561 a significant contribution would be Gabriele Fallopio’s explanation of the cranial nerves suggesting that all nerves had root in the brain would further the development of a science that doesn’t exist for the next generation of scientists (Boeree, C. 2002). About 100 years later in 1664, Thomas Willis would publish //Anatomy of the Brain// the first real work of Neurophysiology as a science even coining the term Neurology in 1681 (Boeree, C. 2002). Willis studied many different kinds of brains to derive his conclusions including, localized functioning, mental functioning, and brain chemistry being responsible for mental illness [Goldstein, E. 2010. p.24-25).

=A Philosophy That Works? Run With It.=

media type="youtube" key="S-nO9UGYD_c" height="315" width="560" Among Descartes many contributions to sensation perception theory was an association that men are like machines (Lockhorst, G. 2008). This idea would be expounded by pre enlightenment thinker Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes contributed much to the field of political philosophy, but his significant work concerning perception deals with how he associated mechanic motions to perception. In 1668 his work Leviathan Hobbes explains that as humans we observe the motion of the world internally as motion, which is perception (Williams, G. 2008). Around the start of the 18th century was the Enlightenment of Western Europe, a time when culturally humans wanted to use science to understand their world around them whether it is government or culture (Damerow, H. 2010). It’s significance to us lies in the fact that these now elite schools of thought and philosophies are spreading to the public and taking hold thanks to many writers including Julien Offray de La Mettrie (Boeree, C. 2002). media type="youtube" key="rB2rhqQbCfE" height="315" width="560"

Among Descartes many contributions to sensation perception theory was an association that men are like machines (Lockhorst, G. 2008) this idea would be expounded on pre enlightenment thinker Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes contributed much to the field of political philosophy, where he is considered with us though is how he associated mechanic motions to perception. In 1668 his work //Leviathan// Hobbes explains that as humans we observe the motion of the world internally as motion, which is perception (Williams, G. 2008). Around the start of the 18th century was the Enlightenment of Western Europe, a time when culturally humans wanted to use science to understand their world around them whether it is government or culture (Damerow, H. 2010) it’s significance to us lies in the fact that now these elite schools of thought and philosophies are getting to the public and they are taking hold thanks to many writers including Julien Offray de La Mettrie (Boeree, C. 2002). media type="youtube" key="nnWnpvkwSMQ" height="315" width="560" While these philosophies are taking hold in the public, other physiological discoveries and philosophies are being made, Luigi Galvani in 1791 discovered that nerves conduct electricity-using frogs; Franz Gall created the (now rejected) pseudoscience of brain localization called phrenology; and Charles Bell in 1811 simultaneously discovered yet independently with François Magendie that there are two types of neurons, sensory and motor (Boeree, C. 2002). The final piece of philosophy behind sensational and perceptual physiology will come from Immanuel Kant, from 1780 to 1790 wrote his critics on philosophy over three works, taking ideas from the era and manufacturing the philosophy of a structured mind that is constantly active with the world (Rohlf, M. 2010). Kant’s ideas are rooted in dualism like Descartes stating that in the realm of perception and sensation there is a noumenal realm, where the world exists and a phenomenal realm, which is how the mind perceives the world (Rohlf, M. 2010). The basis of the Kant perceptual theory is that as we experience objects in the world they are sensations comparable to John Locke’s secondary qualities (Uzgalis, W. 2012), that then are assembled in the mind and structured where one’s knowledge of universal concepts associates to make perception as a construct (Rohlf, M. 2010). This final philosophical idea was what history needed to create the science of cognitive psychology, from this idea it would be a matter of a few years until the physiology of perception and sensation will be considered a subject that is a two way street.

=The Science of the Mind=

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The history of sensation and perceptual physiology comes to full circle in the mid 1800’s, characterized by early experimental observation that would lead to the solidification of psychology as a science. A post-Kant philosopher, Johann Friedrich Herbart in 1824 published the idea that the mind is made of sensation, and there must be a certain amount of sensation to be recognized by the mind (Johann Friedrich Herbart. 2012). Ten years later Ernst Weber would conduct his experiments of two point thresholds that in 1860, thanks to Gustav Fechner, would be derived into the Weber-Fechner Law where S = k log R. S is the sensation experienced, k is equal to the strength of the stimulus, and R is the smallest amount of change of stimulus that can be detected. (Boeree, C. 2000). Fechner would write this in his work //Psychophysics// in 1860 (Goldstien, E. 2010. p.11) from philosophy to proven law it was the first work of it’s kind, Fechner and Weber had bridged the philosophy of perception to the science of physiological sensation using experimental psychology. media type="youtube" key="lCxWZOY4ZMg" height="315" width="560" Experimental psychology would evolve from these beginnings into a discipline that exists in itself and permeates almost every form of psychology, originating from headstrong students who disagree with their teachers (Boeree, C. 2002). Johannas Muller contributed to the physiology of perception and sensation with his law of specific nerve energies, that perception is a direct result of stimulated nerves, specifically the optic nerve giving humans sight and the auditory nerve granting hearing (Goldstein, E. 2010. p.25). Muller had a student named Hermann von Helmholtz, along with his classmates rejected Muller’s idea that living things are more significant than non living things (Boeree, C. 2002), it was this unified philosophy of mind and body that would fuel some of the most important advances in the physiology of sensation and perception including the discovered speed of a neural impulse found to be around 24-32 meters per second, and the invention of the ophthalmoscope to observe patients eyes that is still used to this day. media type="youtube" key="RaNaFQvVXkQ" height="315" width="560" Helmholtz had many students but one would stand out, while lecturing physiology a young man named Wilhelm Wundt would take ideas echoing Weber and Fechner to construct his approach to psychology, this being that for a physical action, there is an appropriate mental action (Boeree, C. Wilhelm Wundt and William James, 2000). During his time in Heidelberg Germany his lectures reflected this along with his publication of his work //Physiological Psychology// the first of its kind, were two revolutions that would lead him to develop his own type of experimental methods in psychology. In 1875 Wundt would move to Leipzig Germany while here he developed the famous experimental psychology laboratory, where he conducted experiments using various methods of introspection (Boeree, C. Wilhelm Wundt and William James, 2000). The foundation for the experiments that would be conducted at Leipzig were rooted in the observation of a subject’s reaction from beginning to end or the mental action to the body action, and most importantly how he did that was the application of the scientific method to his work (Plucker, J. 2012). media type="youtube" key="1Z-oeLl4RRg" height="315" width="560"

The addition of the scientific method to sensation and perception physiology would make Wundt’s work is the complete sum of philosophy and science that started as two separate subjects that would be joined making him widely regarded as the father of experimental psychology. Wundt’s work includes structuralism, syntactical analysis, consciousness as a reality, volition, and more (Boeree, C. Wilhelm Wundt and William James, 2000). Physiological advances during the later 1800’s would give the world a greater understanding of the human brain, starting with Camillo Golgi’s s neuron cell staining technique in 1873, followed with Edgar Adrian’s first recording of an individual sensory neuron (Goldstein, E. p. 25). Carl Wernicke in 1874 would publish his work based on autopsies, specifically on one of a man who at his death could not understand speech, leading to the Wernicke area of the brain (Boeree, C. 2002).

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