Phenomenology of perception, from stimuli to their interpretation

Abstract

Receptors systems are our window on the world, the tools that relate us to the outside world and allow us to orient ourselves in all the activities that are fundamental for our survival. Thanks to the receptor systems we have the awareness and consciousness of human beings and have acquired the knowledge of the world in which we live. Receptors have a fundamental role to play in the birth of culture and the science of peoples. In addition to having an informative function of environmental conditions, the receptors perform an important protective and defensive activity for the living. In fact, they have the ability to make us recognize useful substances from harmful ones based on their organoleptic characteristics, color, smell, flavor, favoring the consumption of the first, preventing that of the second. They also form a second protective barrier at the level of the cell membrane by selecting the entry of unnecessary and potentially harmful substances and preventing their absorption through selective cellular channels. By means of channel proteins and ion exchange proteins (for example sodium-potassium), they maintain the optimal concentration of solutes in the cell. Finally, they guide the intra and interspecific relations between all living beings, from plants to man. We owe our existence to the reception systems. In this article we are going to examine the receptor systems describing the importance they have had in the evolution of the living and we are going to critically discuss the most recent theories proposed by quantum mechanics to explain their functioning.

Specificity of cellular communication, from signal to functional response

“…The interaction takes place through contact, using some kind of stimulus-receptor recognition system, which can be direct or indirect, of a chemical, mechanical or electromagnetic nature [5].…”

“…We know signals at a distance of various types, able to use the environment, such as light signals (electromagnetic), sound (mechanical), molecular stimuli acting at a distance (hormones), and molecular signals that act by direct contact, neurotransmitters, enzymes, antigens, etc. In all cases, the effect they produce is a structural or conformational change specific to the receptor, through the effective molecular signature phenomenon [5].…”

“…He expressed the idea that molecules can store and transmit conformational (steric) information and that, by virtue of this, living organisms carry their own historical matrix inscribed in themselves. I expressed the same concept in the article by introducing the idea of specificity and molecular imprint [5].…”

Communication as an evolutionary factor of knowledge, from primordial organisms to complex collective systems

“…For the description of the multiple stimuli and receptor systems present in nature and the process of sensory perception, I refer to my article [8].…”