Hallucination as a Response to the Ecological Approach

Hallucination as a Response to the Ecological Approach to Perception Zach Montes

Direct vs Indirect Realism • Realism: Reality exists independently from our minds • Mind-Body Problem • Indirectly perceive via mental representation • Directly perceive without it

Ecological Perception • Influenced by Empiricism, Gestalt Psychology • Designed theory based on interaction with environment • Focused on Visual Perception • Affordances: actions that objects allow you to take James J Gibson

How It Explains Hallucinations • Integrates physics and light dynamics • Explains optical illusions very well • Denies the existence of hallucinations • Working with a lack of physical evidence

My Argument • Using current techniques and technology, we now have neurological evidence linked to the existence of hallucinations • If perception exists without mind-independent stimuli, hallucinations are internally generated and understood as mental representations

What is a Hallucination “A strictly sensational form of consciousness, as good and true a sensation as there were a real object there. The object happens not to be there, that is all. ” William James, 1890

Types of Hallucinations • There is no coherent taxonomy of hallucinations • Visual Hallucinations • Simple and Complex Hallucinations • Meta-awareness, cognizant there is no external stimulus

Charles Bonnet Syndrome • Failing eyesight or noncongenitally blind • Patients are mentally healthy • Lack of input leads to spontaneous release of neurotransmitters

Sensory Deprivation • Total visual deprivation • Hallucinations include faces, people, integrated scenes of animals in landscapes • Occipital and Ventral pathways involved

Migraine Hallucinations • Neurons are initially hyperexcitable, followed by cortical spreading depression • Evidence suggesting autonomous pattern formation in visual cortex • Bayesian theory and top-down control

Back to Gibson’s Approach • Even though exact pathways are not known, hallucinations do occur • Perception without mind-independent objects • People who hallucinate are perceiving mental representations

However, wrong ≠ unhelpful • Gibson’s work about optic flow • Contemporary research in Artificial Intelligence • Development of theory in which the observer and environment form an inseparable system

Future Directions • Continued research on hallucinations • Development of new perceptual theories leads to advances in technology in addition to academic pursuits • Integration of direct and indirect perception in perceptual theories

References • Adolph, K. , & Kretch, K. (2015). Gibson's theory of perceptual learning. Wrigh, J. D. (Ed. ), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. 127– 134. doi: 10. 1016/B 978 -0 -08 -097086 -8. 23096 -1. • Billock, V. A. , & Tsou, B. H. (2012). Elementary visual hallucinations and their relationships to neural pattern-forming mechanisms. Psychological Bulletin, 138(4), 744 -774. doi: 10. 1037/a 0027580 • Collerton, D. , Mosimann, U. P. , & Perry, E. K. (2015). The neuroscience of visual hallucinations. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley Blackwell. • Ffytche, D. H. (2005). Visual hallucinations and the charles bonnet syndrome. Current Psychiatry Reports, 7(3), 168 -179. doi: 10. 1007/s 11920 -0050 -3

References • Fish, W. (2004). The Direct/Indirect Distinction in Contemporary Philosophy of Perception. Essays in Philosophy, 5(1). • Gibson, J. J. (1979). Theory of Affordances. In The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, 127 -143. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group. • Guberman, S. , Maximov, V. V. , & Pashintsev, A. (2012). Gestalt and image understanding. Gestalt Theory. 34(2). 143 -166 • James, W. (1890). The Perception of ‘Things. ’ The Principles of Psychology (pp. 115). doi: 10. 1037/11059 -000 • Jenkins, H. S. (2008). Gibson’s “Affordances”: Evolution of a Pivotal Concept. Journal of Scientific Psychology, December, 34 -45. • Ka ufer, S. , & Chemero, A. (2015). Phenomenology: An Introduction. Cambridge: Polity. • http: //www. azquotes. com/author/41745 -James_J_Gibson

Thank you