Sensation is a process and state

Sensation is a tool for perceiving a person himself and the world around him. All living beings have the ability to sense certain phenomena. However, only a person can be aware of this, determine the nature of their feelings and speak about them. What is the concept of "sensation"? What are the stages of its occurrence, and what kinds of them are distinguished in psychology? All this will be discussed further.

So, sensation is an ordinary mental process, which is (unconscious or conscious) a product of the central nervous system, arising under the influence of stimuli (external and internal).

As a physical process, it can be explained by the sensitivity of the organism to sensory influences of the environment. With the help of various receptors, a person perceives information about his inner state, as well as about the external world.

In addition, sensation is also a physiological process in which stimulation of the receptors gives rise to a nerve impulse. The latter, in turn, is transmitted to the necessary parts of the brain, where the reception and analysis of the reaction of the stimulus occurs.

The system of classification of sensations in psychology consists of three groups: Proprioceptive, exteroceptive and interoceptive. Proprioceptive sensation reflects the movement of the body in space by receptors in the vestibular apparatus and muscles. Exteroceptive gives a description of the properties of the external world, thanks to receptors on the body (taste, hearing, vision, smell, tactile and skin sensations). So, to know the taste, you need to eat something, and to get acquainted with the subject - touch it. Interoceptive occurs when receptors are irritated in internal tissues and organs and speaks of their condition.

There are also conscious and unconscious sensations. The first include significant conscious experiences, which sometimes even indicate unusual abilities of a person. They include the feeling of deja vu - a state in which the feeling is felt that a similar situation has already happened, but this has nothing to do with a specific moment from the past. This phenomenon is very common in humans, but it is impossible to artificially induce it, and it occurs extremely rarely. The reasons for its appearance are not found, but it is assumed that this happens due to the work of that part of the brain that is responsible for perception and memory.

Usually deja vu causes a feeling of unreality of what is happening. Sometimes it seems that it could just be a dream, but it happens that a similar phenomenon can be perceived as a vision of the future or as a memory of a "past life". In general, this phenomenon is difficult to describe, and a typical reaction for a person will be to correlate it with some near past.

Unconscious feelings include those that occur during sleep, with a decrease in the general level of awareness, and also in the form of intuitive feelings (intuition).

On the basis of this, it can be said that sensation is a many-sided specific concept. It describes phenomena occurring at different levels of perception and having different qualities, intensity (exacerbation and dulling), and duration.