Sensory Processing and Systems Science: There Is More Than Meets the Eye

Background: Perplexing questions exist regarding the reliability of human eyewitnesses and form the purpose for this study: why two observers can have different recollections of the same event and simultaneously be both wrong? Material/Method: Public domain records, related to sensory processing and perception, have been studied; selection emphasis has been on the most recent publications. Systems Science and Dynamic Systems Model methodologies were used in this study. They offer a complementary perspective on examining sensory input, processing, and output of biologic entities while searching for meaning. Results/Conclusions: Sensory processing depends on “movement” and “intensity” of any environmental change; sensory perception depends on “memory” and “rhythm” within neuro-net oscillations; both processing and perception involve massive data filtration and compression at various strategic nodes within the connectome; brain and muscles are closely linked in their basic metabolic needs and functions that maintain the life-sustaining process of a biologic system with alternating “activity” and “recovery;” the “internal dialog” of cognition is the language of the mind and functions as the Rosetta Stone for translating the electro-chemical signals of sensory processing into an understandable mother tongue of sensory perception. The conflicting observations by eyewitnesses are related not to their differing sensory processing but to their variable sensory perception; systems science offers a path to elucidate the details.