Perception Is Individual Reality - An Essay on Cognition, Art, and Social Metabolism

Perception Is Individual Reality -  An Essay on Cognition, Art, and Social Metabolism

All perception is an individual construction. What we call “reality” is, in fact, a continuous simulation built by the brain from sensory signals, internal states, expectations, and memory. This perspective aligns with contemporary theories of predictive cognition — such as Andy Clark’s — and the Bayesian brain model, where the mind does not simply react to the world: it continuously predicts it.

The 12 Senses: A New Map of Human Perception

Traditionally, we speak of five senses. Contemporary neuroscience acknowledges at least eleven. However, Jackson Cionek, within his framework of Decolonial Neuroscience, expands this list to 12 senses, with a powerful and transformative proposal for the final one: the 12th sense is Human Quorum Sensing (QSH) — the foundational sense of social belonging.

The 12 Senses according to Jackson Cionek:

1. Vision

2. Hearing

3. Smell

4. Taste

5. Touch

6. Proprioception (body position and movement)

7. Interoception (visceral and emotional states)

8. Equilibrioception (balance and gravity perception)

9. Nociception (pain detection)

10. Thermoception (temperature perception)

11. Internal Chemoreception (awareness of pH, CO₂, O₂, etc.)

12. Human Quorum Sensing (QSH)

    Original proposal by Jackson Cionek. This is the sensory-affective capacity to detect whether we are emotionally included or excluded from a group, to synchronize with others beyond language, through affective resonance and social alignment.

     Inspired by microbial quorum sensing and evidenced in studies of brain and heart rate synchronization during rituals, collective dance, and music performance, QSH is an ancestral, preverbal, and embodied human sense.

Attention: The Filter that Transforms Sensation into Cognition

Attention is the mechanism that selects — from the stream of the 12 senses — what will be prioritized for conscious processing. Cognition then arises as the symbolic, emotional, and contextual elaboration of that selected perception.

Models such as:

* Feature Integration Theory (Treisman),

* Attention Schema Theory (Graziano), and

* Perceptual Load Theory (Lavie),

show that attention is not merely focus, but an active architecture of how consciousness is shaped.

Tensional Selves: Like Music, They Have a Beginning, Middle, and End

Cionek proposes the concept of Tensional Selves as bioaffective configurations — cognitive-emotional-body states that emerge from attentional activation. Just like a musical piece, each Tensional Self has a beginning, a development, and an end.

When these tensions are not resolved, they generate cerebral anergies: a buildup of unprocessed emotional energy, leading to fatigue, hyperactivation, or collapse.

Art as a Pathway for Affective Metabolization

Cionek argues that the symbolic role of art — especially music — is to metabolize unresolved social tensions. When an artist expresses what is blocked or fragmented in the collective body, they help listeners activate and resolve their own Tensional Selves. Through rhythm, harmony, and symbolic form, a neuroaffective restoration occurs.

Scientific studies support this:

* Koelsch (2014): music modulates the limbic system and promotes emotional restructuring.

* Salimpoor et al. (2011): identified dopamine peaks during anticipation and emotional climax in music.

* Beaty et al. (2015): showed that creative improvisation activates the Default Mode Network — the brain’s reflective and integrative system.

Decolonial Neuroscience: Body, Culture, and Territory

Cionek’s proposal is part of an emerging paradigm: Decolonial Neuroscience, which affirms:

* The brain is formed through emotional, cultural, and territorial experience.

* Valid knowledge includes bodily, artistic, spiritual, and Indigenous ways of knowing.

* Cognition cannot be studied without considering the Body-Territory — where biological, symbolic, and ecological layers are deeply intertwined.

Selected Scientific References

* Clark, A. (2018). *Surfing Uncertainty: Predictive Processing and the Dynamic Brain*.

* Graziano, M. (2019). *Rethinking Consciousness: A Scientific Theory of Subjective Experience*.

* Treisman, A. (1980). *Feature-Integration Theory of Attention*.

* Lavie, N. (2005). *Selective Attention Under Load*.

* Koelsch, S. (2014). *Brain correlates of music-evoked emotions*. Nat. Rev. Neurosci.

* Salimpoor, V. et al. (2011). *Dopamine release during peak emotion to music*. Nat. Neurosci.

* Beaty, R. et al. (2015). *Default mode network and creative cognition*. Neuropsychologia.

* Cionek, J. (2024–2025). *Tensional Selves, QSH, Body-Territory and Existential Metabolism*. Neuroinsight.net

Conclusion

All cognition is filtered by attention and nourished by the 12 senses. The most forgotten — yet perhaps the most vital — is the sense of Human Quorum Sensing (QSH): the ability to feel social attunement or rejection. Perception is always individual. Cognition is symbolic. And Tensional Selves are the embodied stage where both forces unfold.

When unprocessed, these tensions accumulate as energetic blocks that distort perception and fuel social unrest. Music, as an ancestral form of collective emotional processing, emerges as a path toward restoring balance, reintegrating the body, and reconnecting with the shared territory of consciousness.