EFFERENT INFLUENCES ON RECEPTORS IN KNOWLEDGE FORMATION
Target Article by Jarvilehto on Efference Knowledge

Abstract

This target article suggests a new interpretation of efferent influences on sensory receptor activity and the role of the senses in forming knowledge. Experimental data and a thought experiment about a hypothetical motor-only organism suggest that the senses are not transmitters of environmental information; rather, they create a direct connection between the organism and the environment that makes possible a dynamic organism-environment system. In this system efferent influences on receptor activity are especially critical, because with their help the receptors can be adjusted in relation to the parts of the environment that are most important in achieving behavioral results. Perception joins new parts of the environment to the organism-environment system; thus knowledge is formed by perception through a reorganization (a widening and differentiation) of the organism-environment system rather than through the transmission of information from the environment. With the help of efferent effects on receptors, each organism creates its own particular world. These considerations have implications for experimental work in the neurophysiology and psychology of perception as well as for the philosophy of knowledge formation.

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