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In our daily lives, we are always receiving various stimuli from the environment, whether that stimuli related to our senses or more complex stimuli, such as the appearance of a problem, reading an ad or simply interacting with another person. From the perception of this stimulus, we tend to generate some action resulting from it, such as seeking a resolution of the problem, deciding to buy that TV from the ad you saw, answering questions during a dialogue with a person or executing an angry dog on the streets. Thus, we have the concept of Perception and action, without qualifying closely linked to the concept of cognition. As you can see on our blog "Neuroscience of cognition", a cognition can be defined as a way the brain perceives, learns, records and thinks about all the information captured through touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste, as well as information that is made available by memory storage, that is, a cognition process such as sensory information that comes from the stimuli of the environment, which are also processed or the content that returns in relation to the lived experiences, allowing you to do some kind of response to the medium. An action and a perception cannot be understood as separate processes, nor can they be understood as independent processes that occur in the environment where an organism lives. As a human being, move and maintain a state of constant contact with the structured energy coming from the environment and the organism itself. The movement is a good example of this contact. As the result of coordination and control, the movement reflects, through the limits and the body itself, a parameterization of the action according to the possibilities of a given task in the given environmental environment.
Depending on the level of complexity of perception and action, several levels of the central nervous system can be reached. An example of levels of simple perception and action is the movement of a rapid withdrawal of a limb after intense pain, such as a previous movement, where a case in which the perception of pain generates an action of involuntary removal of the foot, from reflex at the medullary level. An example of perception and actions more elaborate and processed, such as making a decision after an event, reach more complex brain levels like primary and secondary cortex for example.
But how to study perception and action? Some studies show how to use tools such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electrophysiology tested by action and action, as well as perception and imagined action (when you imagine a perception and an action, without receiving or performing anything), a recordable physiological event and has contributed to the identification of neural circuits that involve the process and its behavioral effects both in physiological situations and in neuropathological cases.
References
Neves, Dulce Amélia de B. "Ciência da informação e cognição humana: uma abordagem do processamento da informação." Ciência da informação 35.1 (2006).
Castro, Eliane Mauerberg de. "Percepção e ação: direções teóricas e experimentais atuais." Paidéia (Ribeirão Preto) 14.27 (2004): 63-73.
Gualtieri, Mirella. "Percepção e ação imaginadas." neurociências (2009): 13.
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