How the human brain perceives the world

If normal adult asked to name a number between 1 and 9, in most cases they will be 5. But if you ask the same question to a child or a native of the traditional, archaic society, the answer you will hear "3." Experts explain this by the fact that the person is more natural to estimate the number of logarithmic, linear representation of that - it's later achievements of culture. In this case, it is clear why between 1 and 9 there is 3: 1 - is 30, and the 9 - is 32, and what is between them, is precisely 31. But ancient people hardly aware of the logarithmic scale, and the same can be said of the children. That is, it can be assumed that the logarithmic laws govern some nervous processes - for example, the perception of information. Psychological experiments show that the intensity of the nerve stimulus associated with the intensity of the logarithm of the external signal. But the nervous system began to behave, we need some external causes. In other words, to gain a foothold in the evolution of "slide rule in the brain" was to make life easier for a person to increase his chances of survival. In an article published in the Journal of Mathematical Psychology, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) write that yes, indeed, the "logarithmic perception of reality," reduces the likelihood of error in the processing of data, and the likelihood of such errors can sometimes be a matter of life and death. It should be understood that the old man was not so much more important than exactly how the relative valuation of the external stimulus. It is more important to know how many hungry lions sitting in the bush, one, or five, than just imagine how many antelope in the herd - 96 or 100. Using mathematical models, the researchers showed that the log information processing decreases the relative error in two cases: when you need to remember something, then to come back to this information, and when the external stimulus is necessary to select from the statistical noise of other stimuli. In the case of the stimulus is more or less clear, and in relation to memory researchers to compare it with the computer device: logarithmic data processing allows it to take up less space and reduces the chance of error on subsequent calls. The conclusions are supported by data on how our senses perceive information from which the hearing threshold for example, we are beginning to distinguish human speech. Logarithmic volume reduces the likelihood of errors and accurately separate the voice from the other noise. These results may help in understanding the changes that occur in the brain during learning and memory, as well as the formation of new synapses, the formation of new neural networks, etc.

However, do not forget that the model is rather theoretical, requires a large amount of experimental evidence. And with them may cause problems, for example, researchers suspect that in the case of night vision a logarithmic pattern perception may not work.

Prepared according to MIT News.