Psychopathologies of perception: types, characteristics and symptoms

The perception of the human being does not necessarily consist of processing a copy of reality in our brain, but it is a more complex phenomenon. As the information passes through our senses, reaching our brain, it passes through a series of filters and, altogether, a constructive process is composed, being able to give in some cases a series of anomalies perceptual.

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 at reach of the sensory organs of him, so that there is a distortion of the way of perceiving the formal characteristics of the same.

A fundamental difference between the psychopathologies of perception and those of the 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 the 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 what these psychopathologies of perception are and how they are usually classified.

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What are the psychopathologies of perception?

The different psychopathologies of perception are a series of perceptual distortions that occur when a stimulus in front of you is perceived in a different way, given its formal characteristics, so it is accessible to the sensory organs of the subject who suffers from one of the psychopathologies of perception, and there may be two fundamental possibilities.

One would be when the subject has a perception different from the usual and / or more predictable, taking as a reference previous experiences in this regard, as well as also 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 said stimulus. The psychopathologies of perception in that 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 event that it only took into consideration the formal or physical configuration of the stimulus, as in the case of delusions. In this case the psychopathology is not found in the perceptual organs, strictly speaking, but it is found in the perception that the person himself elaborates from a stimulus concrete; in other words, the way to construct in your mind the perception of the same stimulus.

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Types of psychopathologies of perception

The psychopathologies of perception or perceptual distortions have been commonly classified among the following categories, and there is considerable consensus on this classification.

1. Depending on the intensity of the stimuli

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

• Hyperesthesia (perceive with greater intensity) versus hypoesthesia (perceive with less intensity).
• Hyperalgesias (perceiving pain with greater intensity) versus hypoalgesia (perceiving pain with less intensity).
• Anesthesia: there is a global absence of perception of the intensity of the stimuli.
• Analgesia: there is an absence of pain perception.

2. Depending on the quality of the stimulus

These anomalies in perception are normally related to the previous ones and usually refer to the colored visions and to perceive with greater or less clarity, although they can also influence other senses such as touch, smell or taste.

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

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

• Dysmegalopsia: it is an anomaly in the perception of the size of the stimulus.
• Dysmorphopsia: it is an abnormality in the perception of the shape of the stimulus.
• Autometamorphopsia: it is a distortion in the perception of the shape or size of the body of oneself.

4. As a function of perceptual integration

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

• Synesthesia: attributing a sensory perception of a stimulus to a meaning that does not correspond.
• Agglutination (unitarily perceive sensations that are different).
• Excision (perceiving the elements of the same stimulus separately.

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Anomalies in the perception of stimulus intensity

In this group they include a psychopathologies of perception that They arise from anomalies produced in the intensity in which the stimuli are perceived, which can occur both by default and by excess. The "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 abnormalities would be when there is a total absence in the perception of the intensity of the stimuli, in this case being called “anesthesia”.

We could also find abnormalities in the perception of pain intensity, and can be called "hyperalgesia", when the intensity of pain is perceived in an exaggerated way; a "hypoalgesia", when the pain is poorly perceived; and finally, the "analgesics", which occur when the subject does not perceive any 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 have, “hearing loss”, in which the exact opposite occurs than in the previous.

Anomalies 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 are refer to those perceptual distortions that are related to the perception of a stimulus with greater or lesser clarity than it should be perceived, in greater or less detail or also in relation to perceptual distortions through other senses such as touch, smell and taste.

These perceptual abnormalities They are usually caused by the consumption of certain drugs and / or the side effects of certain medications, as well as by some neurological injuries, although they could also appear in some mental disorders, such as mood disorders or psychotic disorders.

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

In the case of a person with depression, a perceptual anomaly with respect to the qualities of a stimulus could occur, when he perceives everything with very dark, opaque or even colorless colors. In turn, if we ask him what colors a painting in front of us is composed of, he will be able to list correctly.

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

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Anomalies in the perception of shape and / or size (Metamorphopsia)

The metamorphoses 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 “megalopsies” (macropsies), which consist of the perception of objects on a scale greater than the real one; while in the case of "micropsies" the opposite occurs.

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

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Anomalies in Perceptual Integration

In this group are those psychopathologies of perception in which the person is not able to establish connections 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 feeling that what he sees and what he hears are not related, despite the fact that what hey is what the person who is watching on television is saying, this is what we could call "perceptual split". On the contrary, when there is a "perceptual agglutination", a phenomenon completely opposite to that of perceptual excision occurs.

In the event that a phenomenon known as “synesthesia” occurs, there could be cases such as, for example, that the person affirms that it is able to see different colors depending on the characteristics of the frequency and timbre, among others, of a musical song that is listening.