Psychopathologies of perception: types, characteristics and symptoms.

A classification of the different psychopathologies of perception, explaining their effects.

Human perception does not necessarily consist of processing a copy of reality in our brain, but is a more complex phenomenon. As the information passes through our senses, reaching our brain, it passes through a series of filters and, as a whole, a constructive process is composed, and in some cases a series of perceptual anomalies may occur.

The psychopathologies of perception are those that occur when a person perceives in a different way a stimulus or a group of stimuli that is within the reach of his sensory organs, so that a distortion of the way of perceiving the formal characteristics of the same is produced.

A fundamental difference between psychopathologies of perception and those of imagination is that in the former the perceived stimulus is present in front of the subject, although it is perceived in a distorted way with respect to reality; while in the latter they are perceptual deceptions that provoke a new sensory experience, since they are false perceptions.

In this article we will see in greater detail which are those psychopathologies of the perception and in what way they are usually classified.

What are psychopathologies of perception?

The different psychopathologies of the perception are a series of perceptual distortions that occur when a stimulus that is in front is perceived in a different way given the formal characteristics of the same one.The first one would be when the subject has a different and/or more predictable perception, taking as a reference the previous experiences in this respect, as well as the common way of perceiving that stimulus by other people and also the previous experiences of the person himself.

One would be when the subject has a perception different from the usual and/or more predictable, having as a reference the previous experiences in this respect, as well as the common way of perceiving that stimulus by other people and also the previous experiences of the person himself with respect to the perception of that stimulus. The psychopathologies of perception in this case would be those distortions related to shape, size, distance, intensity, among others..

Another modality would be the one that occurs in those cases in which the person experiences a perception different from the one that should be produced in the case of only taking into consideration the formal or physical configuration of the stimulus, as occurs in the case of illusions. In this case the psychopathology is not found in the perceptive organs, strictly speaking, but in the perception that the person himself elaborates from a concrete stimulus; in other words, the way of constructing in his mind the perception of the same stimulus.

Types of psychopathologies of perception

Psychopathologies of perception or perceptual distortions have been commonly classified among the following categories, there being quite a lot of consensus in such classification.

1. According to the intensity of the stimuli.

In this category are those perceptual distortions perceptual distortions related to the intensity with which the stimuli are perceived.They can be in the following ways:

• Hyperesthesias (perceiving with greater intensity) versus hypoesthesias (perceiving with less intensity).
• Hyperalgesias (perceiving Pain with greater intensity) versus hypoalgesias (perceiving pain with less intensity).
• Anesthesia: there is a global absence of perception of stimulus intensity.
• Analgesia: there is an absence of pain perception.

2. Depending on the quality of the stimulus

These perceptual abnormalities are usually related to the previous ones and usually refer to colored visions and perception of pain. colored visions and to perceive with greater or lesser sharpnessalthough they can also influence in other senses as it can be the tact, the smell or the taste.

3. Depending on the shape and / or size (metamorphopsias)

In this case we would find the following subdivisions depending on the perceptual distortions with respect to the size and/or shape of the stimulus.

• Dysmegalopsia: this is an anomaly in the perception of the size of the stimulus.
• Dysmorphopsia: is an anomaly in the perception of the shape of the stimulus.
• Autometamorphopsia: is a distortion in the perception of the shape or size of one's own body.

4. According to perceptual integration

In this classification there are three types of anomalies of perceptual integration.

• Synaesthesia: attributing a sensory perception of a stimulus to a sense that does not correspond.
• Agglutination (unitary perception of sensations that are distinct).
• Excision (perceiving separate elements of the same stimulus).

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Abnormalities in the perception of stimulus intensity.

This group includes a group of psychopathologies of the perception that arise from anomalies produced in the intensity in which the stimuli are perceived, and can be produced both by defect and by excess.. Hyperesthesias" are usually those that occur when stimuli are perceived with greater intensity than usual, while "hypoesthesia" occurs when stimuli are perceived with less intensity.

Another possibility within this type of perceptual anomalies would be when there is a total absence in the perception of the intensity of the stimuli, being in this case denominated as "anesthesia".

We could also find anomalies in the perception of the intensity of pain.These could be called "hyperalgesia", when the intensity of pain is perceived in an exaggerated manner; "hypoalgesia", when pain is barely perceived; and finally, "analgesia", which occurs when the subject does not perceive pain at all.

Anomalies in the perception of the intensity of a stimulus, if they occur with respect to sounds, can be of the following types: "hyperacusis", which is when they are heard at a higher acoustic level than they actually are, "hypoacusis", in which just the opposite occurs.

Abnormalities in the perception of the qualities of the stimulus

This type of psychopathologies of perception are a class of anomalies that are usually accompanied by the previous ones (those of intensity) and refer to those perceptual distortions that are related to the perception of a stimulus with greater or lesser sharpness of how it should be perceived, with greater or lesser detail or also in relation to perceptual distortions through other senses such as touch, smell and taste.

These perceptual anomalies are often caused by the use of certain drugs and/or the side effects of certain medications, as well as by some neurological injuries, although they may also occur in some mental disorders, such as mood disorders or psychotic disorders.However, they may also occur in some mental disorders, such as mood disorders or psychotic disorders.

An example of an anomaly of the qualities of a stimulus in a person with a psychotic disorder would be a case in which the subject states that a sweet food tastes bitter.

In the case of a person with depression, a perceptual anomaly regarding the qualities of a stimulus could occur, when he perceives everything with very dark, dull or even colorless colors. At the same time, if we ask him what are the colors of which a picture in front of us is composed, he will be able to enumerate correctly.

In all these cases, the sensory organs function correctly.Therefore, what is altered is the perception of the world of the patients who present these psychopathologies of perception.

Abnormalities in the perception of form and/or size (Metamorphopsias).

Metamorphopsias are psychopathologies of perception related to a series of distortions in the perception of the shape and/or size of objects.. Within this category we can find the "megalopsias" (macropsias), which consist in the perception of objects at a larger scale than the real one; while in the case of the "micropsias" just the opposite occurs.

Then there are also the "autometamorphopsias" that occur when the person perceives the parts of his own body in a distorted way.

Abnormalities in perceptual integration

In this group are those psychopathologies of perception in which the person is not able to establish links or connections between two or more perceptions the person is not able to establish links or connections that usually exist between two or more perceptions that come from different sensory modalities..

For example, when a person watches television and has the sensation that what he sees and what he hears are not related, despite the fact that what he hears is what the person watching through the television is saying, this is what we could call "perceptual splitting". On the contrary, when there is a "perceptual agglutination", a phenomenon completely opposite to that of perceptual splitting occurs..

In the case of a phenomenon known as "synesthesia", there could be cases such as, for example, the person claiming to be able to see different colors depending on the frequency and timbre characteristics, among others, of a musical song he/she is listening to.