How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

by Lisa Feldman Barrett

As we go from very specific to increasingly general concepts (in this example, from line to angle to eye), the brain creates similarities that are progressively more efficient summaries of the information. For example, “Angle” is an efficient summary with respect to lines but is a sensory detail with respect to eyes. The same logic works for the concepts “Nose” and “Ear” and so on. Together, these concepts are part of the concept “Face,” whose instances are yet more efficient summaries of the sensory regularities in facial features. Eventually, the infant’s brain forms summary representations for enough visual concepts that she can see one stable object, despite incredible variation in low-level sensory details. Think about it: each of your eyes transmits millions of tiny pieces of information to your brain in a moment, and you simply see “a book.”