How Does The External Environment Affect An Individual's Perception

The external world consists of different stimulus and sensations that can affect an individual’s perception. The simple behaviour of watching the sunset can induce complex cognitive processes in the visual and auditory systems.
6:00pm With the onset of the setting sun, multiple components in the external environment begins to change concurrently. There is an increase in sound, both in volume and in intensity, relative to an increase in traffic and number of cars, the sound of crickets and birds chirping, the soft footsteps of humans and pets walking alongside each other etc. These sounds perceived are ultimately a product of vibrations made by objects, which causes air molecules to compress and rarefy, leading to waves that travel away from the object itself into our ears. Along with this, our neurons also respond to a range of wavelengths in the electromagnetic radiation called visible light – which are received from the external world. Light at the lower end of the
These photoreceptors can be assorted into two types; cones and rods, both of which contains photopigments. When exposed to light, pigments in the cones, which specialise in detecting different wavelengths, break down, triggering a series of stages which operate by using a graded output system. The absorption of a photon decreases the release of neurotransmitter glutamate to bipolar cells at the axon terminal which may cause the bipolar cell to either hyperpolarize or depolarize depending on the type of receptor the glutamate binds to. This property allows for a population of bipolar cells to be excited by light and another population to be inhibited allowing our brains to detect and distinguish between colour, contrast, edges, etc. Following this, the bipolar cells also utilises the graded output system in order to transfer this information into the ganglion cells where the information is first communicated via action