“Wara neman” – for the ancient Germanic peoples, this meant paying attention to something. From this moment until “perceiving”, i.e. grasping how something is, many complex processes take place in the body in which numerous structures are involved. In order to survive, the organism has to find its way in its environment – an environment that is constantly changing and continuously sends out countless stimuli. These must be received, sorted according to importance, processed and interpreted, and the brain must decide whether a reaction is necessary and sensible and, if so, initiate it. Most of these processes take place constantly and unconsciously, only a tiny part reaches consciousness.
Perception, cognition, and apperception.
Perception, or apperception, is closely related to cognition, a term derived from the Latin word for cognition. It is defined inconsistently but usually means the processing and reshaping of information in the brain, which is expressed through abilities such as learning, memory, attention, planning skills, creativity, reflection, or volition, and is an important part of individual imprinting.
The conscious grasping of what is perceived after voluntary turning of attention is also called apperception.
With all senses
In order to take in information from their environment, human beings possess various sensory organs. Each one specializes in a particular physical or chemical stimulus, and the brain then assembles these puzzle pieces into an overall picture of the environment. To contain the flood of information, stimuli must have a certain intensity. If they are too weak, they are not perceived at all; if they are too strong – and thus potentially dangerous – they trigger a non-specific pain sensation.
The sensory organs include the organs of sight, hearing, smell, balance and taste, but also other stimulus receptors such as the mechanoreceptors, which react to pressure, touch or stretching, for example in the muscles.
In principle, sensory cells can be divided into exteroreceptors and enteroreceptors, with exteroreceptors receiving stimuli from outside, such as light, sound, odors, or touch, and enteroreceptors registering stimuli within the body, such as blood pressure.
