Your Reality Might Not be Mine: Sensory Perception and Empathy | Poppy Crum | TEDxLA

Summary

The speaker explores the concept of perception and empathy, using the 'dress color debate' as a metaphor for how differently we see the world. They delve into personal experiences with sensory differences, such as absolute pitch and ocular migraines, and relate these to the works of artists like Francis Bacon and Monet, who may have had unique visual experiences. The talk emphasizes the importance of understanding and embracing these differences to foster empathy, improve technology, and enhance human interaction.

Takeaways

• 🌟 The human brain perceives the physical world differently, leading to varied experiences such as the 'dress color debate' where people saw the same dress in different colors.
• 🔍 Perception is influenced by a combination of factors including life experiences, demographics, and environmental conditions, which affect how our brains integrate information about luminance, shadow, and color.
• 🎨 Artistic representations, such as Francis Bacon's distorted figures, can reflect the artist's unique sensory experiences, suggesting a connection between personal perception and creative expression.
• 👂 The concept of 'absolute pitch' illustrates how some individuals perceive sound differently, affecting their interaction with the auditory world.
• 👁️‍🗨️ Conditions like macular degeneration and ocular migraines can alter visual experiences, providing insights into the challenges faced by those with vision impairments.
• 🤲 Empathy plays a crucial role in understanding and accepting the differences in perception, which can lead to more humanized interactions and technological innovations.
• 👁️‍🗨️ The power of perspective is demonstrated by how changing one's gaze or focus can alter the perception of visual phenomena, such as the direction of moving bubbles.
• 🧠 Neuroplasticity allows our brains to adapt to our environments by emphasizing the sensory information that is most relevant, leading to cultural and contextual differences in perception.
• 🎭 Immersive technologies like augmented and virtual reality have the potential to bridge the empathy gap by providing authentic sensory experiences.
• 🤝 The importance of sharing vulnerabilities to foster empathy is highlighted, as it can lead to better understanding and improved interactions with others.
• 🛠️ Design and technological innovations can be influenced by empathetic experiences, as seen in the example of arthritis simulation gloves that changed designers' approach to problem-solving.

Q & A

What significant event in February 2015 is referred to as having a divisive impact on the world?

The significant event referred to is the viral 'The Dress' phenomenon, where people saw the colors of a dress differently, either as white and gold or blue and black, challenging the concept of objective truth.

What does the speaker suggest is the core issue behind the perception of the dress colors?

The core issue is not the actual color of the dress but how our brains perceive the color in the image, integrating information about luminance, shadow, and color to make probabilistic decisions based on slightly different information.

What is the term for the ability to hear individual notes of a song or identify the pitch of everyday sounds?

The term is 'absolute pitch,' which is a rare auditory phenomenon where a person can identify or recreate a musical note without a reference tone.

How does the speaker's experience with ocular migraines relate to her mother's experience with macular degeneration?

Both conditions result in a blind spot in central vision. The speaker's ocular migraines temporarily give her a similar experience to her mother's macular degeneration, allowing her to empathize with her mother's condition.

What is the condition that causes people to see faces with features that appear to move?

The condition is called facial dysmorphia, where the features of a face appear to move, creating an illusion of distorted figures.

How did the speaker's understanding of her mother's vision change her approach to innovation?

The speaker began to build contraptions that magnified what her mother was looking away from, fundamentally changing her perspective on the types of interactions and innovations that could help her mother's life.

What is the significance of the painting style of Francis Bacon in relation to his likely condition of facial dysmorphia?

Francis Bacon's abstract and distorted figures in his paintings may represent how he truly saw the world due to his likely condition of facial dysmorphia.

What hypothesis does the speaker have about Monet's vision while painting 'Water Lilies'?

The speaker hypothesizes that Monet might not have been able to make use of binocular cues due to his cataracts, and thus relied more on monocular cues, which could explain the 3D effect when viewing the painting with one eye.

How does the experience of watching fire content on a screen affect people's physiological responses?

People's bodies react as if the fire was real, expelling heat and showing changes in facial temperature, demonstrating a natural sensory response to visual stimuli.

What is the main message the speaker is conveying about the importance of empathy and perspective in understanding others?

The speaker emphasizes the power of gaining empathy for others' experiences and the importance of recognizing and accepting the differences in perception, which can lead to changes in behavior, technology, and assumptions.

Why is it challenging for people to develop empathy for others' experiences?

Developing empathy requires making oneself vulnerable, which people often resist. Additionally, our environments and personal experiences shape our perspectives, making it difficult to fully understand another person's reality.

Outlines

00:00

👗 The Illusion of Objective Reality

This paragraph discusses the subjective nature of human perception, using the example of 'The Dress' from 2015 which appeared differently to different people. It emphasizes that our brains integrate life experiences to perceive the world, leading to variations in how we see colors and objects. The speaker suggests that understanding these perceptual differences can foster empathy and rehumanize our interactions, moving away from dehumanization. The paragraph also touches on the speaker's personal experiences with absolute pitch and how it has shaped their understanding of perception.

05:02

🎻 Empathy Through Personal and Artistic Experiences

The speaker shares personal stories and explores the work of artists to illustrate the power of empathy in understanding different sensory experiences. They recount their mother's struggle with macular degeneration and how it influenced their approach to innovation. The paragraph also delves into the condition of facial dysmorphia, which affects how people perceive faces, and connects it to the art of Francis Bacon. Additionally, it examines the potential vision of Monet, suggesting that his art may have been influenced by his own visual impairments, and encourages the audience to consider the power of perspective in understanding others' experiences.

10:04

👁️‍🗨️ The Impact of Perspective on Perception

This paragraph explores how changes in perspective can alter our sensory experiences. The speaker uses an optical illusion involving bubbles and sunlight to demonstrate how our brains interpret conflicting motion information differently based on gaze direction. They also discuss the influence of environment and culture on our sensory experiences and the importance of acknowledging and adapting to these differences. The paragraph highlights the potential of immersive technologies like augmented and virtual reality to bridge the empathy gap by providing authentic sensory experiences.

15:05

🌌 The Power of Empathy and Shared Vulnerability

The final paragraph emphasizes the importance of empathy and the need for vulnerability in order to achieve it. The speaker discusses the challenges of understanding others' perceptions and the suboptimal outcomes that result from a lack of empathy. They use the example of Beethoven's fear of revealing his deafness to illustrate the reluctance to share vulnerabilities. The paragraph concludes with a call to action, encouraging the audience to question their own perceptions and consider how they might change their behaviors, technologies, and assumptions to foster a more empathetic understanding of others.

Keywords

💡Perception

Perception refers to the process by which the brain interprets and organizes sensory information to create a coherent understanding of the world. In the video, the theme of perception is central, as it explores how different individuals may perceive the same stimulus, such as the color of a dress, differently. The script uses the example of 'The Dress' to illustrate that people's brains can interpret the same visual information in various ways, leading to the phenomenon where some see the dress as white and gold while others see it as blue and black.

💡Neurophysiology

Neurophysiology is the scientific study of the functioning of the nervous system and the way it processes information. The speaker, being a neurophysiologist, investigates the brain's role in perception, particularly how it integrates information about luminance, shadow, and color to make decisions about the world around us. The concept is integral to understanding the video's exploration of individual differences in sensory experiences.

💡Absolute Pitch

Absolute pitch, also known as perfect pitch, is the ability to identify or recreate a musical note without the benefit of a reference tone. The speaker mentions having absolute pitch, which allows them to perceive music differently from those who do not possess this ability. This concept is used to illustrate the point that even within the realm of sensory perception, there can be significant individual variation.

💡Macular Degeneration

Macular degeneration is a medical condition that involves the deterioration of the central part of the retina, leading to a blind spot in central vision. The speaker's mother had macular degeneration, and the script uses this example to show how the same person's perception can change over time due to health conditions, and how it can affect one's interaction with the world.

💡Ocular Migraines

Ocular migraines are a type of migraine that can cause temporary loss of vision or blind spots in the central field of vision. The speaker describes experiencing ocular migraines, which provide a personal example of how one's perception can be affected by physiological conditions, and how this can lead to a deeper understanding and empathy for others with similar experiences.

💡Facial Dysmorphia

Facial dysmorphia is a condition where a person's perception of faces is distorted, causing the features to appear as if they are moving. The script uses this condition to highlight the diversity of human perception and how it can affect one's interaction with the world, including the way artists like Francis Bacon may have perceived and represented faces in their artwork.

💡Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to change and adapt as a result of experience. The video discusses how our environments and experiences can shape our sensory perceptions and cognitive processes. For example, growing up in different cultural or environmental contexts can influence how we perceive and categorize colors, demonstrating the brain's adaptability to varying stimuli.

💡Empathy

Empathy is the capacity to understand and share the feelings of others. The speaker emphasizes the importance of empathy in gaining a deeper understanding of diverse perceptions and experiences. The video suggests that by empathizing with others' sensory experiences, we can change our behaviors, technologies, and assumptions, leading to more humanized interactions.

💡Immersive Technologies

Immersive technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality, are discussed in the video as tools that can bridge the gap between different sensory experiences. The speaker shares an example of using arthritis simulation gloves to give non-designers an empathetic experience of their target user group, illustrating how these technologies can provide actionable insights into different perspectives.

💡Perspective

Perspective, in the context of the video, refers to the individual point of view or the way one interprets and experiences the world. The script explores how changing one's perspective can lead to new insights and understanding. For instance, the experience of watching fire content and the body's reaction to it, despite knowing it's not real, demonstrates how perspective can shape our physiological responses.

💡Vulnerability

Vulnerability is the state of being open to attack or damage, but in the context of the video, it refers to the willingness to share one's personal experiences and challenges. The speaker argues that acknowledging and sharing vulnerabilities can foster empathy and lead to better understanding and innovation. The example of Beethoven's fear of revealing his deafness is used to illustrate the importance of overcoming the reluctance to be vulnerable.

Highlights

The importance of accepting multiple realities and the impact of the 'dress' phenomenon on perception and society.

The dress color debate as a metaphor for how our brains perceive color differently, with some seeing white and gold, others blue and black.

The significance of understanding that our brains make probabilistic decisions based on life experiences and luminance, shadow, and color.

The potential for bias in perception and how changing context can alter our view of images.

The power of empathy in gaining an understanding of others' experiences through personal stories and art.

The concept of 'absolute pitch' and how it affects the way some people perceive sound.

The impact of macular degeneration and ocular migraines on visual perception and the resulting innovations to assist those affected.

The idea that experiencing sensory conditions like facial dysmorphia can provide insights into the art of painters like Francis Bacon.

The hypothesis that Monet's 'Water Lilies' may reflect his vision challenges due to cataracts.

The effect of gaze direction on the perception of motion in visual stimuli, as demonstrated with the bubbles example.

The role of perspective in shaping our experiences and the importance of acknowledging different viewpoints.

The influence of environment and culture on our sensory experiences and the adaptability of our brains.

The use of arthritis simulation gloves to foster empathy and change design approaches for accessibility.

The potential of immersive technologies like AR and VR to bridge the empathy gap and create authentic sensory experiences.

The physiological response to visual stimuli, such as fire, and the implications for creating immersive experiences.

The necessity of vulnerability in achieving empathy and the societal implications of curated online personas.

A call to action for changing behaviors, technologies, and assumptions by understanding and embracing different perceptions.

Transcripts

I believe we can be more human if we

accept more than one reality in February

2015

something happened it had a divisive

impact on the world

people said it challenged their

objective truth Time magazine said it

changed the course of internet history

forever I'd like to call it a fashion

disagreement but there's something more

important about this we have a really

hard time accepting that we experience

the physical world differently many of

you remember the image of this dress a

lot of us see it differently some people

see it as white and gold some people see

it as blue and black I happen to see it

as white and gold turns out I'm wrong

the color you can go buy in the store is

actually blue and black but it's not

about the actual color of the dress

that's not what matters what matter is

how our brain perceives the color in

this image people have looked at things

like demographics whether that drive

these differences does it matter if

you're a boy or a girl young or old or

what kind of lighting environments

you've spent time in and at the core of

all of these is that how we experience

the world your brain is constantly

integrating information about your

life's experiences in this case about

luminance shadow and color to make

probabilistic decisions and it turns out

that we all have slightly different

information going into that equation so

I can bias you if I change the context

to see this image differently hopefully

maybe we see it differently now but I

can also take it away and hopefully now

we all see it the same these kinds of

perceptual Mally abilities happen all

the time so I'm hoping we can take some

time and think about where there's power

and opportunity in understanding these

differences I'm going to tell you some

stories

some are personal some are about art

some are about immersive technologies

but they're all about the power of

gaining empathy to each other's

experiences that if we can understand

how we can see hear and feel the exact

same information in the world in

entirely different ways we have an

opportunity we have an opportunity a

chance to move away from all of the

dehumanization that people talk about

and rehumanize our interactions and the

technologies we built and used to do

this I've been a violinist since I was

three I was nine the first time I knew

my I heard the world a little

differently I always assumed everyone

knew my refrigerator hum to be flat

could write down the notes of a song or

was like really uncomfortable if happy

birth they didn't start on Adi and I

have absolute pitch not particularly

unique in this way there are plenty of

us who have this we hear sound a lot

like many of us see color but it does

mean we see we hear the world

differently it's not good or bad

it just is consequently I've spent my

life as a neurophysiologist as a

technologist and as a musician trying to

understand these differences in

perception in the brain processes that

drive them as scientists we spend our

lives trying to understand and look for

the ways for the most similar I truly

believe that the innovation leaps and

interaction leaps we need to make are

going to come from understanding the

ways were the most different for example

so before my mom passed away she had

macular degeneration she would say

something to me like I can see but I

can't see so it's kind of a nonsensical

statement what do you do with something

like that macular degeneration typically

involves deterioration of the central

part of someone's retina people with it

experience a blind spot in their central

vision I get ocular migraines the types

of migraines I get a wave of innervation

travels through my brain and my brain

areas important for my central vision

when those cells are being innovated by

that wave they can't respond to

information in the external world and I

develop a blind spot in my central

vision it looks a lot like this if you

try reading and tracking the yellow dot

you'll see this is this is a lot like

the experience I have so for 15 minutes

a year when I'm having this type of

experience I see the world as my mom did

in order to see something I have to look

away from it when she says to me I

concede what I can't see I get it

I can empathize and I change I changed

the way I think about innovations to

help her life I spent time building

contraptions that magnified what she was

looking away from instead of what she

was looking at and I fundamentally think

differently about the types of

interactions I can have with her to

connect it's this place where a headache

and messed up vision that so many we

spend our times trying to avoid actually

gave me invaluable insight to my mom's

world but it's not always that easy to

see both sides

sometimes we're doing it and we don't

even know it unfortunately though no

truly knowing what someone is hearing

feeling or seeing is is difficult it's

difficult to know when it's happening

and even when it is most of us don't

even know how to describe it but there

are people who are really good at

describing what they see and it gives us

this opportunity to peek into their

sensory world and ways we might not even

realize there's a condition called

facial dysmorphia so people that have

facial dis Marfatia don't see faces

naturally when they're looking at a face

the features appear to move so

everywhere their gaze is directed they

develop a blind spot and it fills them

with nearby information this gives the

illusion of sort of movement of the

faces and sort of contorted and

distorted figures I'm going to show you

an example of that

I was only willing to do this to my face

that's why you get to look at me but

if you stare at the little cross I may

follow the yellow crosses and you'll

sort of get an idea of what this

experience might look like for someone

with this condition okay so you saw that

it also kind of looks like this Francis

Bacon was 20th century painter very well

known for painting abstract art the

import rates that were a contorted sort

of distorted figures it turns out

Francis Bacon had a condition that was

likely facial dysmorphia so when he was

sharing what we look at the art in this

case he was actually representing how he

truly saw the world Monet's water lilies

so this is something I noticed when I

was looking at this painting that I

thought was interesting so if you stare

I find that when I stare at one of the

lilies and I close one I go ahead and do

that

I actually the lily seems to pop out

more almost as if it's in 3d okay so I'm

not an art historian art critic but I am

a scientist and when I see things like

this I got ahead of hypotheses about

Monet's vision there are different

pieces of information ways that we

accuse we take in from the world to be

able to know where an object is in space

and depth in particular some of those

cues make use of one eye we call them

monocular some of those cubes make use

of two eyes and we call them binocular

cues like color shading and occlusion

whether one objects in front of the

other all of those can we can get from

one eye but cues that require two eyes

something like relative disparity which

is actually a very important cue

required that both eyes are functioning

functioning normally so I had a

hypothesis that Monet actually couldn't

make use of the information coming from

both eyes turns out Monet had very bad

cataracts and when you started looking

around his cataracts were so bad that

when he

painting water lilies he actually had

one of the cataracts removed and this is

a time when we didn't trip late when

lenses weren't replaced so money

couldn't have made use of the

information from two eyes but the

information from one eye was likely very

developed at making use of that

information so when you look at this

painting now and you look through one

eye you really are

seeing it more like Monet there's a

power to seeing both sides but we don't

always get the clairvoyance of the Manta

Magritte's painting but we can accept

and understand the power perspective has

on perception so I'm going to show you

an example where something as simple as

changing your gaze completely changes

how you experience the world I want you

all to look up to the right hand corner

and you're gonna there's some sunlight

in the water and you should see bubbles

that are sort of rising up to the

surface if you're staring at that Sun

like those bubbles probably appear to

sort go up and fly off the screen does

everyone see that and they fly off the

screen kind of at an angle now shift

your gaze to where the bubbles are okay

so now you probably realize those

bubbles are going straight up you can go

back and forth this experience happens

because our brain has a trouble

resolving conflicting information about

local and global motion the bubbles have

a horizontal grating that's moving

across them while they're rising

vertically when your gaze is directed at

the bubbles we can separate them and we

can experience them both as they are but

when your gaze is directed away we

experience an integration of that

information kind of a cool thing

but of course I like to put a bigger

message on it so there are a few things

here it's the power of perspective

something as simple as moving my gaze

completely changes how I experience

what's in front of me and when I my gaze

when my perspective is directed in one

place or another I can't choose to see

it differently even though I've had the

experience before I don't get to I know

it's there but I can't experience the

same way my perspective determines how I

experience it but I do have the power to

choose to know that someone else might

be experiencing it's that way right now

that is the power of knowing both sides

the human problem is different and it's

there's a lot of opacity here we don't

always know the state of our biology and

our brains constantly change things like

hearing loss or changes in our vision

these are happening all the time to our

lower sensory processes but even things

like our environments affect our context

and affect our sensitivities whether we

grew up in a village in Afghanistan or a

town in the Midwest or in a city like

New York or Kathmandu with different

pressures neuroplasticity helps us take

the information that's statistically

prevalent and relevant in our

environments and make use of it so that

we change to adapt to our environments

things like color shading contour all

tried this cultural language differences

and the categorical boundaries we form

can cause us to have different

experiences at the most basic level of

whether we see green or blue some are

more obvious some less so and sometimes

we actually get an opportunity to try on

each other sensory experiences we did

this with a pair of arthritis simulation

gloves what we wanted to do here was see

if we could take a group of

non-designers and give them an

empathetic experience of their target

user group to work with and

it would change how they thought about

the problem how would it change their

cognitive approach to the problem the

group with the gloves did change they

thought about simplicity in their design

they thought about space they got rid of

things like drop-down menus which are

you know completely terrible for anyone

with digit mobility issues they changed

how they thought about the problem and

they changed what they thought was

important immersive technologies like

augmented and virtual reality are really

starting to try to bridge this gap to

empathy in the case of the arthritis

gloves experience was powerful it gave

them an empathetic experience that was

actionable in what they did but we have

to go further we have to go further than

just showing experiences we have to

actually engage sensory experiences in a

way that is authentic and natural to how

our senses interact in the natural world

so let me give you an example of where I

when I realized how powerful that this

was if we did this right in we were

developing some cond some new

technologies adult imaging technologies

at my company one of the things we were

looking at was the impact of brightness

just so you realize a typical display

you would have bought three years ago

was 310 dollars per square meter the

natural moon is about one to two

thousand candelas we were looking at

luminances much brighter than that and

we were looking at fire content so we

were watching this fire content and

something happened people reacted I've

reacted in ways I hadn't predicted just

by seeing an image of fire and watching

this my body started to expel heat as if

it were real we took we could take

thermal imaging cameras and measure

changes in the temperature on people's

faces we could the screen wasn't

changing but we were reacting to the

content in a way that was natural

in this case all my brain knew was it

had never experienced fire that was that

right and wasn't real so it did what it

did best and just based on the luminance

reaching my retina and my knowledge of

flame my body did what it does if we are

gonna build experiences to try to bridge

and share and gain empathy to each

other's experiences we have to build

immersive acknowledged ease that bridge

this natural sensory experience so I've

been talking a lot about why we should

care about empathy and why we need to

have empathy but there is one problem

what we don't get empathy unless we make

ourselves vulnerable and we don't like

to do that Beethoven lived in fear that

people would find out he was going deaf

and losing his hearing we have more and

more outlets which we all use where we

get to curate who we are and what people

see about us but we know from game

theory prisoner's dilemma Nash

equilibrium that we end up in a

suboptimal state not as good as we could

do if we don't share our vulnerabilities

so to get to the place where we want to

be we have to be able to empathize with

others vulnerabilities but we also have

to be willing to share our own so the

next time you interact with someone and

it doesn't make sense to the way you see

the world it challenges it maybe they

challenge you rather than assuming they

have the same information to make

decisions about the world that you do

assume they don't assume it's different

empathy and experience are powerful and

they give us an opportunity to change we

can change our behaviors we can change

our technologies we can change our

assumptions about why someone might be

interacting with us in a way that we

don't particularly like we need to

change our perspective if you could see

hear or feel someone else's

alternate reality today and question

your own perceptions what will you

change thank you

[Applause]