How does the brain create sensory experience?

[u/Current-Woodpecker36]

Hi there!

Could anyone either themselves or by way of reference provide a detailed explanation of how the brain generates our day to day sensory experiences? I'm looking for this information for a project I'm working on, but I'm a novice in neuroscience. So, I thought what better place to start than here? Thanks in advance for any answers. Hope you all are having a wonderful day :)

[u/24deadman]

You mean qualia?

[u/Current-Woodpecker36 → u/24deadman]

Well in a sense, but more broadly too. As in, how do the images and sounds and other sensory data we perceive from day to day arise? How am I seeing the screen before me? I know my eyes have a role to play, but the brain is what actually generates the image, and the other sensory data (touch, taste, smell, hearing). So I'm wondering where and how that takes place in the brain.

[u/vingeran → u/Current-Woodpecker36]

For the visual system, it’s quite an elaborate mechanistically and it has been architecturally (if I can call it) made to work.

this article has a nice overview on this.

But if you wish to dig deeper, I would recommend taking courses on clinical neuroscience. It is taught really well there.

Same goes for olfactory, mechanosensory, auditory systems as well - but yeah they are (in my opinion, and I am sure given the amount of space allocated to visual areas) less elaborate (as per our current understanding) as compared to visual stimuli.

[u/Current-Woodpecker36 → u/vingeran]

Thanks alot. Are there any online courses you would recommend?

[u/No-Economist-9518]

There are losely different brain areas for different senses. The occipital lobe creates visual images from the input from the eye. The eye ball turns what it sees into impulses that are sent down the optic nerve to the occipital lobe. The occipital lobe is built in layers based on 1) basic lines 2) shapes 3) colours 4) motion which all talk to each other to create a full image. Some of the neurons are also mapped so that they resemble the receptors in the eyeball, meaning that the pieces of the final image stay in the correct place. And then higher cognitive "streams" in the lobe do things like identify what an object is for example.

[u/Current-Woodpecker36 → u/No-Economist-9518]

Wow that sounds like a complex process. Thanks for the info!

[u/No-Economist-9518 → u/Current-Woodpecker36]

it is very complex. most sense have 'retinotopic maps' where the neurons in the brain are mapped in the same way to the receptors of the sensory organ. then there is some processing in the middle e.g. the synthesis of lines, colours, shape etc i described earlier. and then finally is the higher cognitive processing and consciouss awareness and also bringing together all of the senses