Why Your Brain Fills in the Blanks: The Science of Perception Gaps
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Have you ever like seen something that wasn't actually there? You mean like a ghost? No, not exactly. More like when your brain kind of fills in the blanks, you know, creates something that isn't really there. Oh, like those optical illusions. Yeah, kind of. Turns out our brains are doing that all the time. Way more than we realize.

And today we're going deep on how our brains construct our visual world. This is going to be fun. It is. So it's not like our eyes are just cameras passively recording everything. Right. Exactly. It's way more active than that. Our brains are constantly using shortcuts and past experiences to make sense of what we see.

So like a best guess scenario. Pretty much, yeah. It's all about efficiency. Let's take your blind spot, for example. My blind spot? Wait, I have a blind spot. Yep, everyone does. It's where your optic nerve connects to the retina. There's a gap in your visual field. So I should be seeing a hole in my vision. You would think so, right? But you don't.

Because your brain is super sneaky. It fills in that missing information using the surrounding detail. Whoa, that's wild. It is. Your brain is basically predicting what should be there based on what it's seen before. Like if you're looking at a row of trees and one's partially blocked by a car, your brain just fills in the rest of the tree based on what the other trees look like. Okay, now that is both creepy and cool.

But does this filling in thing happen beyond just like simple things like that? Oh, absolutely. Think about those optical illusions we talked about earlier. You know, the ones that make you see things that aren't really there. Right. Like those bending lines that aren't actually bending. Exactly. There is this really interesting study done at the University of Toronto where people had to judge shapes on these kind of noisy backgrounds. Noisy. Like with lots of visual distractions. Yeah. And guess what?

People actually relied on what's called illusory contours to make their decisions.

Basically, they were seeing lines that weren't even physically present. So our brains are just drawing stuff in whether it's really there or not. Pretty much. It's amazing. Our brains aren't just receiving information, they're actively constructing the visual world based on what they expect to see. Wow, that makes you wonder what the real world actually looks like if our brains are doing all this editing behind the scenes. Right. It's a mind-blowing thought, but it gets even weirder. Perception, like what you see, hear, and feel, it's all your brain's interpretation.

tailored to your experiences and needs. So two people can look at the same thing and see something totally different. Precisely. That's the crazy part. Ever heard of Hebbian learning? Can't say I have. It's basically this idea that neurons that fire together wire together. The more two neurons fire together, the stronger their connection gets.

So basically your experiences physically shape your neural pathways. So it's like the more I experience something, the more my brain relies on that information to like fill in the blanks. Exactly. Imagine your brain is like a database constantly being updated and refined based on what you encounter. Think about language learning. People who speak multiple languages have a wider database to draw on, you know. That's true. It's like having more data points to work with. Exactly. But it's not just about the quantity of those experiences. The quality matters, too.

And that's where things get really interesting because it's about how our brains develop these kind of like shortcuts. Shortcuts. What do you mean? Well, our brains are always looking for patterns and making associations. And sometimes those associations, they can lead to, well, bias. Whoa, hold on.

Bias. How does my brain, filling in the blanks, visually connect to something like bias? It's all about how our brains learn and how they adapt. You know, they're wired to find patterns and make associations. But sometimes those patterns and associations, they can be based on, well, incomplete information.

or even inaccurate information. So like stereotypes. Yeah, exactly. Like stereotypes. Our brains can develop these like mental shortcuts based on what we're exposed to, even if we don't like consciously endorse them. So even if I think I'm being open minded, my brain could still be making biased judgments without me even realizing it. It's totally possible. Yeah. And that's where things get a little, well, tricky.

Because these implicit biases, they can really influence our behavior in all sorts of ways. That's kind of unsettling, to be honest. It's like there's so much happening beneath the surface. That's true. But the good news is, if we understand how these biases work, we can start to like

challenge them, you know, and make more well conscious choices. OK, so how do we do that? How do we rewire those shortcuts? Well, it's all about like expanding our experiences and challenging our assumptions. We need to actively seek out diverse perspectives and be willing to, you know, question what we think we know. So it's about being intentional about the information we take in, the people we surround ourselves with. Absolutely.

It's about training our brains to fill in the blanks in a more inclusive and informed way.

This is a lot to digest. So far we've covered how our brains construct the world we see, how our experiences shape our perceptions, and how those perceptions, they can lead to bias. Where do we go from here? Well, now that we've got the basics down, I think it's time to dive into some more specific examples. Examples of what? Of how our brains can be tricked. You know, those illusions we talked about. We can learn a lot from those. Okay, that sounds fascinating. I'm ready to have my mind blown even further. Awesome.

Then let's dive in. Let's start with maybe the Pinocchio illusion. I've always wanted to try that one. Let's do it. It's really kind of crazy, you know, how our brains can take like incomplete information and turn it into like a complete picture. Yeah, that's what we were talking about earlier, right? Like with the blind spot and stuff, our brains are constantly filling in the blanks. Exactly. But...

That same ability, you know, to fill in the blanks, it can sometimes lead us down like some pretty interesting paths. We're talking about illusions, right? Those things are always so trippy. Yeah. Illusions. They're like little windows into how our brains work. How so? Well, they exploit the shortcuts our brains take to make sense of the world. You know, they reveal those hidden processes that we don't even notice usually. OK, I'm kind of getting it, but.

Can you give me an example like of how an illusion works? Sure. Have you ever heard of the Pinocchio illusion? Oh, yeah. That's the one where you like cross your fingers and touch your nose and then it feels like you have two noses. Exactly. It's so weird, right? Yeah. It's like my brain is just completely confused. Well, what's happening is your brain is constructing a sense of like your physical self based on the sensory input it's getting. Okay. So when I cross my fingers...

I'm sending mixed signals to my brain. Right. You're basically messing with its internal model. So it's like, wait, two noses. That doesn't make sense. But that's what the signals are saying. Yeah. It just shows how powerful our brains are. They're constantly trying to make sense of things, even when the information is, you know, totally messed up. So even our sense of like our own body is kind of like,

a construction not necessarily a perfect reflection of reality exactly and this interplay between like our sensory input and our brains model of our body it can have some pretty profound effects especially when we consider things like you know phantom limb syndrome phantom limbs isn't that when people who have lost a limb they can still feel it like it's still there yeah it's a fascinating example of like

how strong that internal model of the body can be, even when there's like no physical input. I remember reading about this neuroscientist, Ramachandran, who did some research on that. Didn't he use mirrors or something? Yeah. He developed this technique called mirror box therapy. Patients with phantom limb pain, they'd look at a reflection of their like intact limb in a mirror. So they could see a virtual limb.

where their one used to be. Right. And that visual feedback, it tricked the brain into thinking the missing limb was moving, which often helped reduce

Reduce their pain and gave them kind of a sense of control back. Wow, that's incredible So even though the limb was gone the brain was still responding to that visual information exactly it just highlights the power of like visual feedback and shaping our body image and It shows the plasticity of the brain, you know, it's constantly adapting based on the information it receives so okay if we can trick our brains into like feeling like we have two noses and

or alleviate phantom limb pain with a mirror? Does that mean we can also rewire those biased shortcuts we were talking about? That's a great question. Well, the answer is yes.

It's complicated. Figures. We can't just like erase those in green patterns, but we can definitely, you know, weaken them and build new ones, more inclusive ones. So how do we do that? If our brains are so good at finding patterns and making associations, how do we make sure those associations are based on like good information? Well, it starts with awareness, right? We need to recognize that these biases exist and that they can influence us even when we don't realize it. Okay. So step one is acknowledging the problem. What about step two?

Step two is like actively exposing ourselves to experiences and information that challenge those biases. You know, if we're always surrounded by the same things, the same people, our brains are just going to keep reinforcing those same old biases. But if we make an effort to engage with different perspectives, different cultures, different experiences, it forces our brains to like expand. It's kind of like that saying you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

But in this case, it's like the five perspectives you engage with the most. I like that. Yeah. It's about like diversifying the information we consume. You know, the media we engage with, the people we interact with, the more we do that, the more flexible our brains become. So it's about turning that filling in the blanks thing into like a strength instead of a weakness. Exactly. Instead of letting our brains fill in the blanks with like libertarianism.

limited information or biased information, we can train them to fill in the blanks with, you know, a more nuanced understanding of the world. This is really making me think.

So we started with how our brains construct what we see. Then we talked about how our experiences shape our perceptions and how those perceptions can lead to bias. And now we're talking about illusions. Where do we go from here? Well, now that we've laid the groundwork, I think it's time to talk about some practical stuff. Practical stuff. Like what? Like what we can actually do to become more aware of our perceptions and how to change

challenge those ingrained biases. Okay, yeah, I'm definitely ready for that. Like, how can we take control of our brains, you know? Yeah. Make sure they're working for us, not against us. Let's get into it. We'll discuss maybe the power of mindfulness and the importance of seeking out diverse perspectives and

you know, critical thinking, all that good stuff. So you've been talking about how our brains, you know, they're always filling in the blanks, creating this kind of virtual reality based on what we've experienced. And sometimes our biases too. It's kind of freaky when you think about how much is going on under the surface. Yeah.

It is. But the good news is the more aware we are of it, the more power we have. Once we realize that our brains can be tricked, you know, then we can start to like question our assumptions. So it's not about becoming like totally objective like robots or something. It's about being more mindful of what's shaping how we see things. Exactly. It's about being more conscious. Like a great example of this is how our memories work. Memories. What do you mean? Well, we tend to think of memories as these like

perfect recordings of the past, right? But really, they're more like reconstructions. Reconstructions. Yeah. Like every time we remember something, our brains are basically reassembling it.

And that process, it can be influenced by all sorts of things. Like what? Well, like our current mood or, you know, experiences we've had since then. Even the words we use to describe the memory. Hold on. So you're saying like the words I use can actually change my memories. It's not that the actual event changes, but the way we frame it in our minds does.

You know, the language becomes part of the memory itself. Wow, that's pretty wild. It is. Think about eyewitness testimony and how leading questions can actually change what people remember seeing. Okay, yeah, that's kind of scary. It makes you realize how easily our sense of reality can, like, be manipulated. It's true. But the good news is it also means we have more control than we think, you know?

if we're careful about the language we use we can create more accurate and more compassionate narratives okay so being mindful of the language we use that's one tool what else can we do to like fight those ingrained biases to make sure we're seeing the world as clearly as possible well one of the most powerful things we can do is seek out different perspectives you know if we're always surrounded by the same opinions the same experiences our

Our brains just get stuck in that limited view. Right. But when we actively engage with people who think differently, who come from different backgrounds, it forces our brains to like expand those categories, challenge those assumptions. It's like that saying you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. But in this case, it's more like the five perspectives you engage. Oh, I know. I like that.

It's about actively diversifying the information we take in, the media we consume, the people we interact with. The more we do that, the more flexible and adaptable our brains become. So it's almost like we can turn that filling in the blanks tendency into a strength instead of a weakness. Exactly. Instead of letting our brains fill in the blanks with limited or biased information, we can train them to fill in the blanks with a richer, more nuanced understanding of the world.

This has been incredible. We started with how our brains actually construct what we see, then we went through all the weirdness of illusions, and now we're talking about how we can use all this knowledge to become more mindful, more inclusive, and ultimately more in control of our own reality. It's been quite a journey, hasn't it? I think the biggest takeaway here is that our brains, they're powerful, but they're not perfect.

by understanding how they work, we can use that power for good. You know, we can shape our perceptions and our actions in a way that benefits us and the world around us. That's a great way to put it. This has been the deep dive, and we hope you've enjoyed exploring the amazing world of perception with us. And remember, your brain is always filling in the blanks. Make sure you're giving it the right information to work with.