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ddl's picture

Overriding Sensory Input

Submitted by ddl on Mon, 03/02/2009 - 12:11am.
     After our discussion this past week about how receptors are our bodies’ means of detecting and generating responses from the outside world, what became most intriguing for me was how the body can override the sensory input that it receives and generate thought about something else even though they are not physically experiencing it at that given moment.  A good example that could better exemplify my point, is how one could be looking at the floor (receiving the visual sensory input that says he or she is looking at a floor), and then allow themselves vividly imagine a beach or something else which is not present in the discernable environment.  In this case, one can seemingly override the sensory input that they are receiving, blocking out the information from their receptors.  What is the mechanism for this and does this ability dispel the view that thought and every other function of the brain is dictated by biological signaling from inputs that we are receiving from our surroundings?

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